New Dates for Univ. of Southern California Recruitment
 

Panhellenic has announced the dates for recruitment at USC. It will be earlier this year. Also, the schedule of parties will be slightly different. All ten NPC chapters will participate in formal recruitment.

Orientation: August 25th For potential new members 8:00 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Bovard Auditorium

August 26th: Unity Day PNMs visit chapters 5:30 p.m to 10:55 p.m.
August 27th: Unity Day PNMs visit rest of chapters 5:00 p.m.to 11:10 p.m.

August 28th: House Tours PNMs visit up to 6 chapters 2:00 p.m. to 11:20 p.m.

August 29th: Slideshow/Video Day PNMS visit up to 4 chapters 11:00 a.m to 6:10 p.m

August 30th: Preference PNMS visit up to 2 chapters 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

August 30th: Bid Card Signing 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m

August 30th: Bid Night Celebration begins approximately 8:00 p.m

Presents: October 25th, Sunday

Some schools have a rule that if a PNM skips classes in order to attend rush, she is automatically ineligible to receive a bid. Check to see if USC has this rule - if they do, you pretty much only have one choice.

Dang, I didn't realize how early USC started classes.

Anyway, that's ridiculous to start recruitment on the third day of classes. Either a lot of women are going to miss one of their first classes in college, or they're going to miss a whole round of rush. They couldn't at least wait a couple weeks, when it might not be as big of a deal to miss a class?

Oy, that's a tough one. Talk to the Panhellenic advisor to see what the policy on this is. If you're missing the first round for a class conflict, you have an excused absence. Some Panhellenics ask chapters to carry these PNMs if the conflict is early in the recruitment process, regardless if the chapter met you or not - but you need to double-check with your campus on that!

Good luck!

Last year sorority recruitment ended on Labor Day. I have no idea why recruitment has been changed to an earlier date.

Classes begin officially this year on August 24th. Years ago classes began in September. Now the academic year has been moved forward. One reason is to have final examinations over before the winter recess.

Agreed! My school used to have recruitment during the first week of school. They also had the rule that if you skipped a class for a recruitment party you got kicked out of recruitment. Also, the school had a rule that if you skipped the class during the first week you would be dropped from the class. So pretty much the only option you had was to go to class. This happened to a friend of mine last year who had to skip one of the first parties because of a class. She ended up being invited back to that chapter for the next round, but understand that this doesn't always happen.

This year, recruitment is over Labor Day weekend.

When I went through rush at USC...back when dinosaurs ruled (not roamed) the earth rush was the week before the start of classes.

But to add a partial answer to the question: Yes, you can go to class if there is a rush/class conflict. But when my daughter went through she missed the first night of rush due to a class conflict she was summarily dropped by all those houses, They never met her.

This upsets me. If we're going to make school of primary importance (which we absolutely should), then I feel that the Panhellenic should help the PNMs work out their conflicts. I have definitely heard of campus Panhellenics requiring that chapters carry PNMs who had to miss their parties due to class conflicts in the first or second rounds. It makes sense, and it sends a uniform message: school is important.

Yes, it upset her. And since each person's threads are searchable I wrote about this issue about a year after it happened. (I am not adding yet undiscovered reasons why my daughter's rush was what it was). Since rush at SC is the first week of school when kids are moving around classes etc. attendance in class can be very fluid.

On the last night before Pref, after my daughter had been rushed by the President etc. at her favorite house she told the girl who was rushing her (and the same major in the same class that the sister had missed due to rush) that she would be glad to give her the notes for the first class (it met once a week), the girl yelled in horror, "YOU WENT TO CLASS AND DIDN'T GO TO RUSH!?" That, and another reason that I mentioned at a different time was the reason she wasn't invited to Pref.

(And lest you think that I am one of those helio mommies who makes excuses, despite "what happens in meetings stays in meetings"...no, not when your best friend was in the meeting and the families have been friends for 50 years.)

Yes, Panhellenic should help (they tried to rearrange and contact), her rho chis tried to help but neither can control what happens in voting meetings. Reality bites.

This is a tough situation for the chapters to be in. When I advised at Cal, the members had the option to invite women back who missed a round and could see the excuse for the reason the pnm gave. The thing is, when you are so limited in how many women you can invite back, it is hard to take a chance on someone you only met once, when you have had more time to get to know another pnm.

I do think it is unfair because we always say school should come first, but on the other hand it is logistically difficult to actually treat the pnms who are missing from a round as equals to the ones who attended.

May I point out that it was not only the pmn who was placed in a difficult position? The sister rushing my daughter didn't go to class. This was a class in her major and it is offered once every four year. (Film major at USC equals a class that focuses on, and has an appearance by the very famous filmmaker. Every four years is the most this person shows up).

I personally think that there should be "free" invites if the pmn can't attend due to a class. That way at least the pnm doesn't suffer. But the sister who can't leave rush THAT is up to the chapter.

I hear ya girl, it's a tough balancing act - especially if the chapter is faced with not being able to bring back women who they have met two days AND really like.

Ergo my suggestion of "free" invites sort of like I have heard that some schools have for junior pledges.

This is a predicament at many schools...hold rush early in the semester and you might be missing the first week of classes where attendance is mandatory. Hold it late enough, however, and sisters will be up until 4am doing membership selection when they have a paper or midterm the next day.

My advice (that nobody should listen to so I'm not liable) is that if you know it is a 150 person lecture class, guess what, they are likely not going to take attendance in a way that you can't get around by simply telling somebody else in the class to yell out your name or write your name down. Risky? Absolutely. But usually the first day of classes you just get your syllabus and an overview of the class. If you are in a non-lecture class or an upper-division one, I wouldn't try it. But I think at many schools they will cut you even if you were in class.

Just a comment: During the first week of school it would be EXTREMELY unlikely to have a midterm...if only by definition. (UCs have midterms the third or fourth week of a quarter). Again, very rare to have a paper due the first week of school.

And if one is a first semester freshman, in a competitive major, you aren't going to know anyone to "sign you in".