Infraction stories
 

So, I've searched, and I can't find any threads dedicated to rush/recruitment infractions alone. For what not to do during Recruitment, please see the sticky of what NOT to do.

However, if anyone would like to share infraction experiences, feel free! From a members perspective, or a PNM. Things you've seen, participated in, heard of, etc.

When I was Pi Chi, I wrote up an infraction for a sorority (lets call them ABC) that bad mouthed another sorority (lets call them XYZ) during pref round to one of my PNMs. The comment was regarding a sister of XYZ that had died the previous fall. Totally unacceptable.

During my sophomore year, we had a girl accused of one. Rush (as it was called then) was very competative, and people were turned in for looking at PNMs for too long. We had an insane silence period that year, 5 days (first and last year for that, it usually was just a 24 hour period). You could say "Hi," to a PNM, or talk to them in class about class related stuff, and that was it. She was flagged down in the cafeteria (very public, open place) by a girl on her athletic team, who happened to be sitting next to a PNM (also a member of the same athletic team). Our girl said "Hello" to the PNM, and had a quick 2 minute conversation with the non-rushee teammate about team related stuff. She was turned in for an infraction for violating the silence period. When she went in front of the Director of Greek Life, however, the whole story came out. The PNM in question, who happened to have already dropped our group, also happened to be the Directors own niece. The Director called the PNM/Niece, and straight up asked her if our girl had said anything more than "Hello." PNM/Niece said "Nope, she said hello to me, and talked to Teammate for a couple of minutes, then left." Director then decided that no infraction had occurred, and later it was decided that the 5 day silence period was a bad idea. PNM ended up not even signing her bid card and dropped out of Rush right after Pref.

There were a record number of infractions reported that year, with only 2 or 3 being legit.

Ahhh, yes, that's a big one. There were such specific things you could/could not say. For example, I believe it was that you COULD say "I hope I see you tomorrow", because technically you could hope that you run into them in class, out, etc. But you cannot speak on behalf of the chapter and say "We hope you see you tomorrow" because it sounds like they will be invited back. (Mind you I can't remember if those were the EXACT rules, but it was something like that).

So I always just said it was nice meeting you/have a great day/good luck with recruitment.

Funny story
 

I will preface this by saying we didn't get an infraction for this, but we could have.

Just before the first round of recruitment started and we were all lined up to begin our chants, the doorbell rang. A poorly timed flower delivery arrived about thirty seconds before the beginning of rush. One of our girls had to shimmy out, sign for the dang things, and hustle back in -- all while the PNMs were standing outside.

I still laugh when I think about how bewildered the guy was as we were all trying to shoo him out of the way!

These were the exact rules as I remember them, for us. You could say "I", but never "we."

I think there are some pretty crazy recruitment rules. There is one in particular I find a little silly, I've never heard of anyone actually getting an infraction for it though.

We go outside the house to pick up the PNMs, and we can go all the way to the end of the sidewalk leading to the house, but if we as much as put a toe over the line and onto the public sidewalk that lines the street, that's an infraction. Usually the PNMs will come to us, but sometimes they're a little more shy and it's just awkward waiting there.

Personally, I hate the whole infraction business. I always say if you have to cheat to get women, well, what is that saying about your Chapter? I do, however, understand the need for rules. I don't understand people breaking them by say calling up a PNM and taking her shopping or to the bar (providing even a fake id) or for ice cream. They have all happened on our campus. I think dirty rushing goes on all the time in small doses and we just don't hear about it. We have a policy that if the women feel the need to file an infraction on another Chapter I will go talk to the recruitment advisor first to see if it can be resolved before filing. So far that has worked for us. I'm sure there are some really good infraction stories out there.

I think infractions get really childish, it became very tattle-tale-y on my campus during silence. I was so frustrated one year and sat in the middle of the student center eating lunch with a friend who I knew was not rushing and was a sophomore. One of my sisters said something to me about how risky that was later. I was just fed up and didn't care. If someone did tattle it was ignored and if it had gone further it would have been easy to prove that I didn't violate the rules.

But the silliness just to avoid getting told on even for NON infractions... ugh.

The only things I remember on campus were the violations of rules against going to the local bars. Being in the city, there were other options, but members were prohibited from going to bars within a certain radius of campus. We always thought it was silly since most PNMs shouldn't have been in the bars anyway.

What exactly are silence rules? I have heard them mentioned before.

I think I posted this somewhere previously...

When I was a Rho Chi the Rho Chis had to file an infraction against 1 sorority that involved several of their members who were notorious dirty rushers. This occurred the weekend prior to recruitment starting. But sorority members and PNMs were warned that if they saw each other, they should not interact besides a basic hello. Well, all the Rho Chis went to the bar and 2 of us happened to be in the ladies room and 3 of us sitting in an obvious location- not drinking, just hanging out. We watched as sorority members took PNMs into the bathroom and gave them beers to drink. The sorority members could have cared less that we were all there. Obviously the sorority got into a lot of trouble. Not only were they dirty rushing, but they were providing alcohol to underage students.

There's silence and there's strict silence. At least on my campus.

They loosened up our silence rules my senior year so we were allowed to say hello but no IM/Facebook/email/ or other face to face interactions. Strict silence was from the end of pref to when bids were given out. No communication allowed at all. Best if you just go home and go straight to setting up bid day in the morning. Saves a lot of trouble.