U of Illinois How long until Initiation?
 

How long does the typical 'pledgeship' run at Illinois? Back-in-the-day…..we did not initiate into our Chapters until spring semester (early Feb). But I have a friend whose daughter is a frosh at UGA (pledged ADPi) and just got initiated this past weekend!!!! I understand individual houses will vary, but any ideas as to when it's done nowadays? thanks!:)

Most are 6-8 weeks, so everyone is initiated well before Thanksgiving.

Most NPC groups Initiate in 6-8 weeks. I believe that Chi Omega still waits for first semester grades. I'll let others chime in on that for sure though.

I don't think this is true at Illinois, but I'm only basing that on a memory of my Chi O friends in the dorms initiating during the first semester, so that's pretty fuzzy evidence.

Any idea as to how this evolved to be done so quickly? especially with such huge pledge classes. Maybe the Pledge Trainers (are they still called this??) could only take so much! ha!

I know that my class initiated in the same semester as pledging, but we were following our National's program that followed a specific timeline. It's been awhile since then, but it was six or eight weeks from beginning to end if I recall.

It was primarily an attempt to eliminate hazing. The less time they are new members, the less time there is to haze them. It does make it easier for smaller chapters so that those women can run for elected positions in December and sign housing contracts for the next year after they are Initiated.

The length of pledging isn't determined by each campus/chapter - it is a national policy that must be followed by all chapters of an organization.

I believe Chi Omega is the only NPC that isn't restricted to a 6-8 week period, but I could be wrong.

ETA: "6-8 week period," as I understand it, means that some organizations specify 6 weeks, some 7 weeks, and others 8 weeks. I don't know if any indicate that "members must be initiated between 6 and 8 weeks."

Oh, I think some do...or at least, they allow flexibility based on what else may be on the chapter's calendar.

The Chi Omega's at my school did initiate before the end of the semester, however they did initiation after the other two groups on campus did (I think the most was like a 2 week difference). I felt really bad for those girls because at that point we were sisters, and they still weren't allowed to wear stitch shirts. Every thursday was PH badge attire so we got to wear our flashy pins, and they still had pledge pins. I think they changed this recently.

I think the 6-8 week thing also helps non-housed chapters make arrangements for where they are holding initiation. We usually rented out banquet halls to run initiation.

I seem to recall Chi O being the only chapter initiating in Spring semester.

If I recall correctly, my Pi Phi roommate initiated (in 2006) in November. She was definitely initiated before we left for winter break.

Also, many universities demanded the change to a shorter period.
Pledge trainers are now called new member educators (or vp: member education, or something similar).
I'm sure you've heard the new lingo:
Rush = recruitment
Rushee = Potential New Member or PNM
Pledge = new member
Pledge Period = new member period
Suicide = Intentional Single Preference

Right. On some campuses, 6 weeks could fall in midterm week or Thanksgiving weekend so there is some leeway to allow for that.

The flexibility is also critical for schools on trimesters (like mine). With only ten weeks to play with we were tight on time. Week 1 was planning, week 2 was recruitment, and the new member period started week 3. We had to conduct initiation before week 10 for everyone's sanity (that's when all the papers, reports, and presentations were). All chapters on our campus initiated during the same week so I would assume we all either had the same range from our respective HQs or all got exceptions for our school calendar. It was never a problem- we were all well oiled machines because we did this process three times a year. Our total was never realistic so all groups conducted COB/CORs... But that's another story!

Our alumnae newsletter states that AOII will initiate on November 2.