Total and COBing
 

I wanted to start a topic just to get some feedback on how total relates to the prevalence of COB on a campus. This is consistently an issue on the campus I advise where they have gradually moved from an unstructured fall recruitment(formal is deferred) to a simple Open Bidding style for the fall semester.

The issue that seems to occur is concerns about formal numbers being influenced by Freshman women feeling that they can just go through in the fall and bid where they want (very untrue as generally only 1-2 sororities can take more than 2-3 women in the fall). Just recently the issue of lowering total has been discussed as a way to eliminate the need for COBing. Some chapters are resistant, especially those who struggle during formal and utilize cob but also those who are more successful and would rather focus on pumping up numbers of freshman involved, than lowering total.

I was just wondering where the line is for when it's time to lower total and also how realistic is it to expect now COBing on a campus where recruitment is fairly uncompetitive.

If fall is just an open bid free for all, 1st semester freshmen should not be permitted to rush. Period. Fall should be a time for the not-struggling chapters to give bids to those two or three friends who are sisters in all but name and for the struggling chapters to get a second look from the freshmen whose formal rush didn't work out. (The struggling chapters should also be cultivating women from the minute the previous spring's rush ends.)

Plus, freshmen women on this kind of campus (where Greek life is not a "must") who basically just get to campus, aim their sights on a group and don't get in - usually don't rush again. They instead become virulently anti-Greek because they feel they've been shafted. When they have a whole semester to get to know sorority women in a "normal" setting (rather than rush) it's less likely that they will 1) get fixated on a chapter that isn't right for them 2) condemn EVERYONE after being disappointed by one group.

IMO, this is a far bigger problem than COBing. COBing is only a problem when 3/4 of your chapter comes in that way and doesn't see the need for, or want to learn how to, formal rush. At a low-key campus, you need to have both and be skilled in both to succeed.

Sorry I should have clarified. The open COBing is for Sophomores and up so Freshman have to wait until the Spring to have a shot.

Oh, ok, I get it - so the freshmen are reluctant to go through formal because they think they can just easy peasy it the next fall.

In that case - I would make sure the sororities are publicizing how many, or rather, how FEW women they actually do take then.

If the majority of groups aren't at total consistently (other than being a girl or 2 under) and haven't been for a long time, then it should be lowered.

I agree that if most groups aren't at Total consistently *after formal recruitment* then Total needs to be lowered. On campuses with deferred recruitment though, since seniors have graduated and you haven't been able to replace them yet, I would expect a lot of chapters to be under Total in the fall.

That's what I would imagine, as all but one of our groups is generally at total after formal recruitment. My belief is that we need to do better at getting freshman go go through in the spring. It is not uncommon for juniors to receive bids and often times there are approximately 10-15 Sophomore and higher going through recruitment and Quota varies from 11-14 and has been at the lower end of the range the past two years. What then happens is you see one class being larger so that sororities have issues of dealing with classes of 15-20 individuals graduating which can cut the sororities in half. So it's not uncommon to see one of the six having a larger fall class, although it generally alternates between the sororities.

My instinct is the AGDee which is that unless multiple sororities are consistently under total following formal that total needs to be lowered but conventional wisdom on the campus tends to lean towards thinking that if Fall COB is eliminated due to total being lowered the problem will cease. It feels like a reactive response vs proactive response but I wanted to get some input as to whether I was viewing the situation wrong.

It seems like Panhellenic could emphasize that the most opportunities are available during formal recruitment and the number of spots available in the fall are small. Perhaps they could even get some statistics on how many spots are available in each term and present that as part of the recruitment orientation.

The other thing I'm wondering (because I've seen this) is whether some chapters are flat out telling women "We won't have room for you this term but if you drop out of recruitment and come back in the fall, we'll have a spot for you".

I haven't heard any evidence of that and I feel like the number of girls coming out for fall recruitment are not that large to make it seem realistic that a lot are holding off and generally girls that drop out of Formal don't get bids in the fall so I wonder. I know during the greek life showcase at the beginning of the year they stress that there are few spots available in the Fall, but you know how Freshman can be, they hear one thing, but can decide another.

It also could be that since fall is so small and quite most of these girls expecting to go through in the fall don't hear about events because more chapters due invitation only events to prevent the issue of having 14 girls show up for 1-2 spots.

I seriously doubt that any of the groups' HQs will be down with completely eliminating COB at a deferred rush campus, no matter if total is lowered or not. I'm not even sure that's legal.

This all is starting to sound like a group or two didn't get what they thought was a "sure thing" and is blaming everyone but themselves.

I believe that as well, I believe there's a tendency to blame the PNMs rather than the way greek life approaches the fall semester and, for some groups, formal recruitment.

Since I am just an advisor for one I"m just working on motivating them to do there best but disrupting an entire campus culture is rough.

Spring recruitment can be tough. (Sometimes I think it just Sounds like a good idea.)

Don't know for sure because things are different campus-to-campus, but it sounds like you are hearing from a group of women that consider themselves not the "sorority type" on your campus and rather than face the possibility of disappointment and stress of going through formal recruitment they are deciding not to try.

I would recommend adding in more "Meet the Greeks" or "Spotlight on a Sister" or even "Apple Polishing" events to help boost the entire Greek community image. Get those freshmen to meet some sisters and try to get them picturing themselves in a house.

Actually, this sounds more like women who are used to getting what they want and think they shouldn't have to follow the same rules as everyone else. Especially after they hear about their HS friends' rushes at competitive campi and think that because of the relative laid-backness of the school, it's a cakewalk.

To whom I would say...

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