Joint Council Rush/Recruitment
 

So, somewhere in the archives of GC, I read some posts about a few schools that participate in joint council recruitment. I don't remember which threads and I'm not going to search for them.

My question is: does anyone know which schools do this? If I remember from the posts, these schools would only have the combined rush up to a point, say info night, then NPC would do their own thing, NPHC, IFC, NALFO, etc. would then continue on with their recruitment practices.

The goal was so that the student populations would get to see all greek orgs on their campus' at the same time & be able to conduct more informed choices. This would help eliminate rushee's/perspective joining orgs they felt was a 'mistake'.

Yesterday, on YOUTUBE, I saw a member of DST participating in NPC rush as a Rho Chi I think at South Carolina? Anyway, my other thought was do you guys think this is a viable way to recruit members? Personally, I think it's a great idea.

Thoughts?

I vaguely remember a member of a NPHC sorority serving as a rush counselor for NPC rush at U of So. Miss. I don't like that idea-NPHC and NPC methods are too different. I also don't like the idea of Panhellenic Councils allowing sorority members who have not gone thru formal recruitment on the sorority side to serve as rush counselors. I feel that the best counselors will be those women who have actually participated in NPC rush, both as a PNM and as a sorority member. In that same vein, I don't think that a NPC member would be the best choice to advise women who are interested in joining a NPHC sorority.

I do like the idea of an activity fair that would include all the different Greek councils, as well as other campus organizations, at those schools that do not hold NPC recruitment prior to the beginning of fall semester.

One year at our school when Meet The Greeks was held in the gym, the NPHC groups were there as well. It seemed that most PNMs were just confused, especially since you were allowed to join NPC groups as a first semester freshman (slightly delayed rush, started mid September-ish) and the NPHC groups, you were not. An activities fair where ALL campus groups were included would have been a more appropriate setting.

This is more along the lines of what I was thinking of except more like an all-greek info thing. Information would be given/presented about the history of greeks in America (Phi Beta Kappa) and then a brief history of the councils in order of founding (whichever are represented on each campus).

You could be there a long time at Alabama, Illinois, etc!

We had a member of AKA particiapte as a Rho Chi for NPC recruitment. She was very good. I can't remember her reasoning for wanting to do it.

I think that in a situation like this there is no substitute for actually having been through the process and joining a NPC sorority. I feel that the PNMs in her Rho Chi group may have been at a disadvantage, much like a NPHC aspirant would be who came to GC seeking answers to her questions, and a NPC member tried to help them out. A NPC person may have a broad overview of the NPHC process, but having not actually been thru the process is not the best choice.

As to an activities fair, I was thinking more like tables set up and students could go where ever their interests lay. Perhaps general information about each council and categories of other organizations could be shared in a presentation during summer orientations or in an email sent to all students prior to the activities fair happening. Then the students would get better, more in-depth information going table to table at the fair.

That might be your opinion, but there are many people who are qualified in real life to give advice across councils.

I wouldn't trust most opinions on GC even if they were within my council of interest.

Exactly....those are called Greek Life advisors. They are employed by the college.

We talked about this at length in another thread, but I believe that the neutrality of a non-NPC member could be a benefit on some campuses. While I wouldn't suggest ONLY NPHC Rho Chis, at my alma mater, each group has three or four Rho Chis; one who was NPHC could work. When I was there, it was WELL KNOWN that RC's did a poor job of "disaffiliating". I'd rather talk to someone who has no dog in the race than someone who might be in communication with her chapter about things I've said.

And there are some Greek life advisors who aren't worth their salaries.

^^^ Exactly. At the end of the day, it has proven to be effective on some campuses.

I completely agree with this. The rules are not incomprehensible to an outsider. Having experienced it yourself may increase the empathy factor that the Rho Chi may have for the PNMs, but it doesn't guarantee it.

The biggest problem I see is with first generation college students who know NOTHING about Greek life., and those who know vaguely that their favorite teacher/aunt/counsin, etc was in an org. It would be nice to have something that gives them an overview of the different counsels and how their recruitment works. Let them meet a few members and open it up for GENERAL questions. It could avoid alot of tears. To do it more combined beyond a meet the greeks would only make sense at schools where there's NO Fall recruitment for NPC's

I could see it going in conjunction with an NPC informal rush, especially at really big schools where there might be a handful of chapters taking more than 1 or 2 pledges and multiple NPHC and MCGC chapters willing to open to a more public forum for recruitment and competition across chapters. My perception, and someone can feel free to correct me, is that once a girl has expressed any interest in one NPHC, then any others are off the table. To do a coordinated rush, they'd have to be open to winning members from within a pool of chapters and answering comparative questions. You can't have the NPC chapters laying out every detail about the process and the pledge period and the others not wanting to break tradition by being too open about the process.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall and watch it all transpire!

Yes

Great point.