Freshman interaction before rush
 

I have a question for all of you that have a delayed formal rush -- our formal rush isn't until after Christmas break, and we have not had great programs in the past to meet the freshman before rush. The numbers for formal rush this year were a lot lower than in years past, and we have been throwing around ideas for "casual" interactions between sorority members and freshman during first semester to get them interested in rushing and to make the sororities seems less standoff-ish. Anyone have suggestions or things that they do on their campus to meet freshman first semester?

Good question! :)

My campus does formal Fall Rush, so we usually try to meet freshmen before school actually starts -- however, I think some of our activities might work for you also.

During freshman orientation, we always have a booth set up in the student life center to give out information about the sororities and fraternities on campus. It's been done two different ways:

Some years, all of the Greeks have one big booth and we have representatives from each GLO in their letters working the booth at scheduled times to answer questions of parents and freshmen about the requirements associated with Greek Life.

Other years, each GLO has their own booth set up so that the freshmen and their parents can get detailed info about each group instead of just a general idea about Greek Life on campus.

At the booths, interested freshmen can sign up for a mailing list, so that the Greek Affairs office can send them a Rush packet.

Another thing that I have heard of is for the Greeks to sponsor a Welcome to Campus barbeque on front campus, so that the freshmen will see it on their way to class. They stop for a hot dog or burger and meet some GLO members in a casual, no-pressure environment.

Hope these help! :) Good luck!! :D

It depends on what your Panhel's rules are for contact during the fall semester. My college holds deferred rush in January. Sorority members are free to talk to freshmen girls during the fall. We can invite them out to dinner (they pay for themselves) or to watch a favorite tv show with us at someone's house or apartment. The only things that aren't allowed are having them into our homes/apartments to drink (or when drinking is going on at all) or buying them anything. If we have them over for pizza, they're supposed to chip in.

What my chapter does is encourage all members to take freshmen out during fall semester. We get to know girls casually in class, through guys, or at parties, and we invite them out for what are essentially rush dinners. Typically, these will involve two or three sorority members and about three freshmen. If we know and like a girl, we might invite her out and tell her to bring a couple of her friends. If one member already knows a freshman well, she might invite the freshman out to dinner and bring along other sisters who have never met her.

All the sororities on my campus do this. And I think it's pretty safe to say that most of the freshman are onto us... they know they're being rushed. We make extra sure to take our legacies out a lot, so they know we're really interested in them. We hear stories from our guy friends about freshmen girls worrying that we haven't taken them out, what does that mean, etc. It's totally possible to get a bid if we haven't taken you out. It just probably means that you were an "unknown" before rush week.

At my school Panhel would pick a few people (from different groups, including people on Panhel) to go present about Greek life in the dorms. We also had a fall carnival where all the chapters had different booths during orientation week.

People would take out freshmen and become their friends, but that's a fine line ... like if you buy your new friend a birthday present, is that OK?

"Dorm storming" isn't allowed at my school. We're not alowed in the dorms at all especially freshman ones. Every fraternity does it, or did it, but only we got warned about it :rolleyes: grrr

Don't know how campus tours for HS seniors are done at your school, but here at Nebraska, on the days that are specific Senior visitation days (we call them Red Letter Days) one of the interest programs either students or parents can attend is on Greek life. Also as part of the Campus tour there is one Fraternity House and one Sorority house that is open for tour. Usually Greek Ambassadors will give the tours (although I gave one university tour that included my house and then 2 other tours of my house).

I think it's an effective tool to get people at least thinking about greek houses, b/c usually the Student's are pretty undecided about it, so it gets the thought into their mind that it may be something they want to try. It also gives them a chance to get a rudimentary understanding of the process of Formal Rush.

Obviously this may be something difficult to begin doing, but talk to the office of admissions and Greek Affairs about the possibility. I also realize that this probably won't be nearly as effective on campuses without Greek housing.

When I was a senior in h.s., I came to campus for a visit. Our tour leader was a ZBT, and the tour takes you by Greek Row. All the ZBTs were out in front practicing for rope pull. I have to admit, I was suprised that they looked like nice, normal guys, not the Bad Popular Guy In A Sweater from 80s movies ... and they said hi to all of us as we went past. Then we toured a dorm (it was standard to tour the tour leader's dorm since he/she had access). AXD was housed on the third floor of his dorm, and I definitely noticed all the letters in the windows.

Just from this I got a good first impression of Greek life, and it was the first time I thought, "Hm, maybe this is something I could consider."

Thanks for the ideas...a couple of things that make our campus especially difficult are 1) we are a small, private liberal arts college so most people aren't local and wouldn't have a chance to visit during a "greek weekend" or even for a tour, and 2) we have 4 sororities in houses, and one in a dorm, so the sorority in the dorm does NOT want us to do house tours (we were in a dorm until this year, so I certainly understand that!)
When I was an active, there was pretty much a HUGE no-contact rule with freshman, everything was considered "dirty rushing" even if you just casually chatted with freshman. I think that all of the houses have to change this attitude, that one house is trying to get an unfair advantage or something if a member is seen talking to a freshman. One thing I saw on Vanderbilt's website was that they have philanthropies or something that the freshman are invited to -- anyone know anything about this program, or do you have anything similar to this? The other suggestion by our Greek life coordinator was a progressive dinner during first semester, so the freshman can visit all of the houses and at least meet a few actives.

A progressive dinner or a Greek open house are great ideas for meeting freshman, but the chapter in a dorm will be at an unfair advantage. Freshmen can be easily dazzled by a house, and I'm sure the unhoused chapter is afraid of exactly that. However, if they have a meeting room in their dorm (or a room they can use on campus), that may help even things out.

Anything that all of Panhel does together works well because it eliminates fear that some other chapter is taking advantage. Dorm storming is one idea. But the chapters have to learn to not be afraid of talking to freshman - the freshman might sorority girls are snobs who don't like them! The first chapter that starts doing this WILL get flack from the other chapters, but as long as you keep it casual - eat lunch together, don't give them a private house tour - you will get the women come rush and not incur any rush violations.

Like ZetaKris, we also do "move-in" day at the dorms with all the new freshmen. It really is an awesome way to meet women. We also do dorm storms, but not for specific recruitment events. What we do is do a card for mid-terms stating "The sisters of Delta Phi Epsilon wish you best of luck on mid-terms". At finals, we have a coffee and cookie station in the lobby/lounge of the dorm and everyone's invited down for a study break.

Another thing that we learned is really good to do is be an orientation leader. When the incoming freshmen visit campus for orientation, they bond with their orientation leader. If you've got three or four sisters doing it, you meet a lot of women.

Re: Freshman interaction before rush
 

PiPhi, may I ask what school you're at? I see you're in Seattle, too... just curious about the other Greek systems in town :) I'm at the UW

I'm an alum of the University of Puget Sound chapter, and I'm currently their advisor, but I live in Seattle right next to UW and I went to medical school at UW -- go dawgs! (I drive by the DG house on my way home...it is gorgeous!:)

Thanks for all of the ideas -- I agree that we need to get Panhell to encourage more positive and friendly interaction -- I'm not sure when this "no contact" rule got so out of hand. I like the idea of helping the freshman move in. I know Panhellenic does this, but I'm not sure that they have actually advertised that the students are greek.
While I am sympathetic to the chapter in the dorm, the fact of the matter is that all of the freshman know this before rush, and frankly, we always did very well even before we had a house, so I'm not sure that it really makes that much of a difference on our campus. But I don't think Panhellenic would let us do anything in the houses anyway, since they don't even let us do house tours during rush!

We're currently considering some aggressive Summer recruitment programming which includes mailers and events. We'll see how that works out...

Your sisters could volunteer or get jobs at freshman orientation and giving campus tours to new students. All the greek orgs. can host a party welcoming all freshman and new students to campus similar to what DZRose93 suggested. Good luck!

My chapter hosts a Freshmen Dinner every month during that first semester. Each active gets a lists of frosh girls to call, and we invite them over for that dinner or to come to our COB events. Although they can't receive a bid from us it's still a great way to hang out with us and have fun! :)

Also try to have an all campus event and publicize heavily. Do anything to get your name out in front of the freshmen. Show them how much fun it is to be greek (and to be a Pi Phi ;)).

PPL,
Erin