Will someone explain to me, a mere Boy about Total?
 

I understand the idea of formal Rush. Get all the new people out during the same days and have the sororities vie for them.

But what is the rationalization behind putting an arbitray cap on membership in any one sorority?

IF I want to be a DZ or XO etc and they want to me shouldn't I just be allowed to pledge them without worrying about a cut off that the sorority itself didn't create?

It dosn't seem Rational. If I want to be DZ I should be able to be them, not told they would love you but you were 21st out of 20 spaces they had available, shame your name started with a W.

And so what if half the girls want one sorority in any given year, thats called competition.

Also, i read on hee that some schools might have as much as 400 girls not placed because of Total? Shouldn't rhey be raising Total? sheez.

Total is a cap on membership that is applied to all sororities on a given campus, not just one. It's set by the campus Panhellenic, and reevaluated as necessary. (So if there are a lot of women interested in joining a sorority over a couple of years, Panhel may raise total, or may invite a new sorority to colonize.)

Total isn't used during formal rush. Instead, quota is used (# women attending pref parties / # of sororities, typically). This is why sororities can be over total - if total is 80 and quota is usually around 30, you could potentially have a chapter with 120 members.

Total becomes important during informal/COB rush. A chapter at or over total can't hold informal rush. A chapter below total can hold rush, but can only extend bids until they reach total. This allows smaller chapters to grow.

In neither case are bid lists sorted alphabetically, so Ms. W. wouldn't be left out in the cold simply because of her name.

Thank you, you have clarified the teminology but I am still not seing the reason.

Total is a cap placed on total membership, why is there a cap on total membership? I would wager good money that there are groups that could havea lot more members if they weren't restricted.

Also, why have quota or formal rush? If quota is 30 but 40 girls really want to join XYZ and XYZ really wants them, thats 10 girls that can't be a member of that group. That hardly seems fair.

I used the example of the last name because if you have 20 really good candidates, any of which you would be glad to have as a member, then something as little as when they came up during chapter discussion could be a factor in a decision.

Also, wasn't it an LSU thread or another southern School that said they had hundreds of unplaced women? Surely they couldn't all be undesirable? And I don't see that school raising Total.


Oh well, maybe its just a girl thing.

I can give you one thought on why. The purpose of NPC sororities (well, one purpose) is to further the growth of each of the 26 groups. If we don't put caps on membership in them equally on a campus, there wouldn't be equity in the groups that we do have. Each NPC group is in full support of seeing other NPC groups survive and be successful ie: If Tri Sigma and another chapter were on a campus and Tri Sigma was at 100 and the other chaper at 20, we would work to become more equal. Reason? If the other chapter stayed at 20 forever, they eventually would have dwindling membership, or no membership. That is not the goal of being an NPC sorority.
I hope that helps a little bit....or maybe I've confused even more.
Great question though.

That pretty much sums it up. The idea behind total and quota is to put all the sororities on an equal playing field. If you went through formal rush and one or two of the chapters were noticibly smaller than the others, you probably would not want to join them. If a group misses quota for even a year, it can be really hard to recover. That is why the smaller chapters are given the opportunity to catch up through snap bidding and COB. If a chapter has consistant membership problems, it is likely they may have to fold. This is not just a hit to the chapter and national organization, but the entire panhellenic community.

Here's an example from my school...

We have 8 NPC sororities and during the first few days of Formal Recruitment, many girls want "the big three sororities" (because they're bigger and are good at recruiting). Our quota for Structured is usually only about 10-15 girls so on the second day, our Rho Chis really sit down with their groups and say "hey, you girls are all talking about the same few sororities, and if you all are, then the girls in the other groups probably are too..." At this point, the PNMs go into thirds parties with a more open attitude and find a place where they really connect (whether it be "the big three" or another chapter").

If those three sororities didn't have a cap, a lot of PNMs wouldn't give other sororities a chance. And while these three sororites do well in Structured, they have a hard time keeping their members because they tend to be a little more fake. I think the problem comes when a given sorority strings a PNM along just because they want to be sure they get quota, but then they don't have space for her.

Also - if you were in a sorority that had no cap and had 952975 sisters - how could you ever get to know them all? How could you call them your sisters if you didn't even recognize half of them?

I think that a lost of PNM go into formal rush with the idea that the biggest houses are the best just because they have the most people. It's hard to change that preconception, even though there are a lot of advantages to being in a smaller house. Someone else pointed out, if you have 1000 members, how would you even know them all?? It makes it a little more resonable for those smaller houses who might otherwise have no chance during Rush.

Why do you need equality? Whats wrong with survival of the fittest? Your system doesn't work anyway. You are still going to have some organizations that are big and some are small. I am not saying bigger is better but you will always have that.

I sort of agree with the person who started this thread. I understand the reasoning behind quota and all, the main reason on our campus being that it supposedly helps keep all groups similar in size. Not true. All the sororities on my campus are large, but some are a lot larger than others despite quota. I think it just creates tighter competition because you know there are only so many spots in any given house. And all the houses are under intense pressure to "get quota" to they won't look bad...which is, quite frankly...well, I'll just put it nicely and say that what in the heck sort of difference does it matter? We got quota, but trust me, it was through hard work and just plain deviousness.

James, you are hardly a "mere" boy LOL :D.

I think women are more concerned about things like this in general than men are...just a difference of the sexes.

And it SUCKS that if you are in a chapter that is smaller, and enjoy the fact that it's smaller, you are made to feel that's not OK and numbers are all that matter. Under pressure like that it's no wonder some groups have trouble recruiting. Some people want to be in a sorority of 200...some want to be in a sorority of 20. As long as you and the other members are happy, that should be all that matters.

James, a lot of the schools that have 400 women get cut from rush don't use the quota total system and that is why the women get cut. IU is one example of a system that doesn't use Q/T and why NPC recommends using the Q/T system.

What system do they use Laura? Why they are cutting so many girls, do they have to? Describe the process if you can? Thanks.

Sorry for the questions but I am insatiably curious:)

James its called the computerized system , where that damn thing picks the houses for you in a way. It sucks. I might like XYZ and they might like me, but it doesnt mean im going back. I think this is what Laura is talking about cuz UM has it...correct me if im wrong

There is nothing wrong with a computerized system. If you were hand-matched instead, the same rules would be followed. The computer simply does it faster.