Spring Recruitment
 

My school is currently thinking about moving our formal recruitment to January or February. I personally think this is a wonderful idea, and a lot of girls that I call "crack slippers"-- girls who were hard to read, but were thought be a good fit only to later realize there might have been a mistake-- might be saved the grief of not fitting in as the whole chapter had hoped (I am not trying to sound mean, but I am sure someone understands this dilemma). But I was wondering what the feelings were of women who had gone through this. Is it actually helpful? Does it result in higher violations, because girls have formed bonds? Do some girls lose out because they did something supremely dumb on their first weeks on the their own? Do girls find better placement? Is there a stronger bond among the pledge class or sorority as a whole?

***I tried looking for a thread about this, but couldn't find it, so if there is one please just post the link, and ignore my stupidity.

I can't compare/contrast with formal recruitment held in the fall, but I did go to a school with formal recruitment held the first week of school in January.

I don't know that there were really many blatant dirty rush type infractions. Instead, it was more likely for both the PNMs and actives to more or less know who would be in which sorority. There were always rumors of certain chapters giving out oral bids, but I don't recall any actual drama that would result from such infractions. In general, the big issue is that having an entire semester to befriend active sisters means PNMs can both know what sorority is their best fit and be even more drawn into tent talk and only be interested in chapters that they THINK are their best fit. Like any system, formal recruitment in the winter has its major ups and downs. Especially the whole waiting outside in the snow part. Major down.

Oh, and as for developing strong bonds- I think that has to do more with the size of the chapter and the members. My pledge class was incredibly close knit, but the year below us wasn't. My particular chapter was extremely close as a whole, even the bonds between the newest members and the seniors who would be graduating only a few months later.

If y'all are Birmingham Southern, I know quite a bit about your school and probably what you need to do is talk to all the sorority members and ask them whether it would have made a difference to them to rush in the fall vs. the spring. Some schools go to spring recruitment only to find out that a lot of the possible members have lost interest by then. Plus there would be, I feel, quite a bit of dirty rushing...

Yes, spring recruitment would let you know more about your PNMs--whether they're disasters (there was one major one there about 7-8 years ago) or future flunkouts. There are good and bad points to be weighed. However, don't let Panhellenic decide alone! Talk to lots of women!

I won't be there when the switch happens, but most of the girls in my chapter are excited about the potential for it moving. Our panhel delegate said we will probably have a meeting to discuss it with our panhel advisor (not sure when or if it'll happen). But I just wondered how other people felt about it. I know no girls personally who went through formal spring rush. I just wanted to gather intel to possibly fuel a more investigative and helpful discussion.

Personally, I worry about dirty rush. We are getting much better about keeping violations to a minimum and I would hate to see all that work go to waste. Because nothing burns my recruitment butt more than hot boxing and pressuring these poor, scared PNMs.

I come from/advise a chapter that has deferred rush. However it's a small school with total set at 42 currently.

We haven't seen many issues with dirty rushing that is directly related to it being deferred. We had more issues of it when he had a partially structured in the Fall for COBing upper classmen and I believe this more related with people struggling with the partially structured nature and not knowing how to effective recruit their friends (bid promising was usually seen with sophomores who were not yet familiar with their chapter's selection process and seemed to come more out of an awkwardness then maliciousness).

The one bad thing I've seen is that even on a small campus where most individuals do no come in very aware of greek life the first semester then allows a lot of rumous to flourish and make it easier for PNMs to become to attached to the idea of one sorority.

The second issue is girls losing interest due to either feeling like they have solid friendship circles and not wanting to break those up or just not caring as they have joined other organizaiton, started volunteering elsewhere and have their own social circle. the problem comes when they come back from sophomore year and are in different buildings from their friends and realize no one is knocking on their door to get them involved anymroe because they are no longer freshmen.

This second issue can be easily dealt with if you utilize the first semester like it's supposed to be. As one long, casual recruitment event. Keep Greek Life in their face and have Panhellenic events as well as making sure sororities are putting one events geared towards showing the positives of greek life. If the sororities just put on a handlful of events and then disappear you run the risk of girls feeling that there is no reason to be in a greek organization, or you have them making their decisions about sororities based on their interactions with one or two individuals and not seeing Greek Life as a whole.

I think that overall, it results in better placement. You've had a semester to see what the sororities are like outside of rush. Yes, there might be more tent talk, but the advantage is if a girl decides to join the "geeky chapter" or "fat chapter" - she knows that's the stereotype she's going to have to contend with. It won't blindside her. Rather than feeling as though she's been tricked, she'll more likely to want to go out and prove people wrong. On the other side of that coin, the partying chapter can't fake clean up their act for a week and attract girls they have nothing in common just for the sake of getting their GPA up. If they want to change, they have to TRULY change.

Yes, there are girls who decide they only want to join one group. Sometimes with good reason (they become friends with many members), sometimes with no reason. That happens in first semester rush too.

The key is normal interaction. Make friends with freshmen women because you like them, not necessarily to end up bidding them.

If one must have a structured formal rush, I think you provide everyone better information with a spring semester event. As 33girl said, the organizations can't just put on an act for a week; women interested in joining will have had a few months to see which chapters are involved in what events for themselves. I think (though this is speculation; my rush was very, very different) it would minimize the effect of tent talk, as the women would see for themselves the persona the chapter presents to the campus.

Dirty rushing? May happen. Oh, well. They're young adults, but they're adults nonetheless.