NPC's vs. university policy Re: COB
 

Hey everyone. Can someone who is well-versed in the agreements of the NPC let me know something?

I know that colleges/universities permit sororities on their campuses, but does that mean they can also dictate the type of recruitment? Can a university say: no you may not have informal recruitment (COB), only formal?

Either way, my school is kind of confused OR they are posting old policies online.

Thanks!

I know universities can mandate whether you can have Fall or Spring recruitment, so I'd imagine they could control whether you are able to COB.

public or private school?

One of our chapters had a serious problem with this and I don't know that it has ever been resolved. The uni's rationale was "it would be too disruptive with people pledging all the time." They didn't understand that just because someone signs a bid means she begins pledging that minute...and that our pledge program differed from that of the other groups on campus.

Then there was the dumbass at Clarion who said you had to start pledging 48 hours after signing a bid "to prevent hazing." Not in the green book and very unfair to the chapters who needed to COB.

Since COB isn't an "event" or coordinated by Panhel, preventing it sounds like a freedom of association issue to me.

Sounds logicial to me :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

i found this in the green book:

"each college panhellenic establishes its own constitution, bylaws, code of ethics and membership recruitment regulations, working out the details within the framework provided by NPC for all college panhellenics."

i am assuming that membership recruitment regulations would include determining whether to hold informal recruitment or not.

your best bet would be to have your collegiate panhellenic officers contact the area npc delegate and ask her to intercede on your behalf.

Get on the horn to your regional Theta folks. They should be able to sort through the mess and get an answer either way.

i think she's meaning that it's illogical in COB because sometimes you don't give bids all at once, and you might have to wait a few weeks to get a pledge class together before starting the pledging process.

Denise is agreeing with me, hence the sarcastic rolly eyes smileys.

haha, whoops. i'm usually pretty good at picking up on the sarcasm. le sigh.

Just a very few years ago - I think 2004 - NPC came out with some new resolutions (note - not Unanimous Agreements) regarding recruitment. They asked that each individual college Panhellenic review their recruitment style and discuss four possible styles of recruiting - which they listed and described. If I recall correctly, and I do not have any paperwork in front of me - they were (1) Fully Structured - meaning Formal with invitation lists, release figures, quota, etc. (2) Partially Structured - meaning you could call it Formal, but have the settings more relaxed and the invitation lists more relaxed (3) Minimally Structured - meaning that maybe Panhellenic sets some dates and helps you with interested PNMs (4) Continuous Open Recruitment - meaning you are all on your own and responsible for getting to Total and finding PNMs by yourself.


Each campus was supposed to discuss the fine points of each one and determine which was a best fit for their campus and Greek culture. Some smaller schools don't have a need for a full-on formal recruitment with bells and whistles.

So your University does have a say in which of the 4 types of recruitment you have, but it should be in consultation with each chapter's delegates, advisors, international officers, and the NPC Area Advisor.

As Denise mentioned, your best bet would be to call one of Theta's NPC officers and explain everything that is going on. If this was a decision that was made a long time ago, she should know about it and know the particulars behind it.

Thanks for the feedback. To answer, this is actually my alma mater, not my current institution. It is private, liberal arts, ~2400 students.

I asked b/c I know that my chapter has held COB events this year and last year, and it was perfectly fine with the Greek life office. Today I read their policy on recruitment and I saw the "only formal recruitment" section, so it got me confused.

I don't think the uni can prevent recruitment, but they can restrict it via time, etc. Call your NPC rep...this is definitely an issue of which they should be aware.

Bentley College restricted recruitment in the Fall of 05. Basically, once school started, the Greek Council and GA decided that no one could rush (men and women) so that they could take a look at Greek life and make it better. It was a joke, nothing changed. Also none of the groups involved their alumnae or advisers in the decision, so I alone was fighting all the Greeks who had been brainwashed into thinking this was ok (at one point in an auditorium with every Greek on campus, doing my best to remind them all of the green book, which no one, including the GA, seemed to be aware of), all while I was pregnant and extremely nauseous. It wasn't fun. :)

Basically the school, which is private, was able to get away with it. We didn't have an NPC delegate at the time for some reason, and even though I tried to contact them, the other national groups, no one cared besides my own group.

So I guess I'm saying that yes it can happen. I hope it doesn't to your school though. We had women who were interested as juniors who ended up not going through in the spring because they felt it was too late. I thought that was really sad. The one benefit was that it allowed us time to really work on other areas of the chapter.