Washington at St. Louis: 3 Sororities COBing Sophomores & Juniors
 

This fall three sororities at Washington U at St. Louis are doing "open bidding" -- COB or COR, Continuous Open Bidding or Recruitment -- for upperclass women. Formal recruitment, mainly for first-year women, remains deferred until "spring."

Student paper article with background and some details:

http://www.studlife.com/news/1.744864

Smart groups...I was glad to see Aphi on the list even though this is a strong chapter for us. Always smart to get to max size before recruitment!! ;)

Did really none of the chapters do COB in the fall before for upperclassmen?! No one joined except through FR?

I hope no one minds me reposting this, as I found it on wustl's greek life page:

http://www.glo.wustl.edu/shared/pdf/...FL04-SP018.pdf

According to the stats, no new members have joined in the fall the past 4 years at least. I wonder if the idea to COB has anything at all to do with the potential that the school is going to open for expansion??

Wash U. has not had 'formal' COB in a LONG time.

When I was a freshman there (1998-1999) all 6 chapters did Fall COB (Theta was at Wash. U. then; ChiO was not)--and that was the last time there was a real COB. Many times, chapters only had a few (like, 3 or less) spots to fill in the Fall so there would only be closed invitational parties--and you basically had to know people in the chapter to know when the events were. A couple of chapters did COB on their own when they needed to in the Fall--and very rarely were events published to the 'public'. DG did do a more published COB for a couple of years--but then they didn't need to, so they stopped.

The number of women participating in sororities has increased over time--so much so that there has been a lot of talk of Wash. U. opening for expansion and adding a 7th sorority. The campus has less than 7,000 students TOTAL (about half of which is women) and each sorority currently has 100 members or more--that's one of the reasons that total was also raised in the process this year. It is not uncommon now to have NM classes in the high 40s or 50s. When I went through recruitment in 1999 (Wash. U. has spring deferred recruitment) quota was 32. The chapters are only getting larger over time, not smaller...which is great. But it means that a 7th chapter could really help lower the number of women in each individual chapter and make the chapters a bit more cohesive. I've met many greek women who are surprised to learn that Wash. U. has as many girls in each chapter as a large state university does. Obviously, there are less sororities--but people seem to think that at a 'smaller' school, there should be smaller chapters. I tend to agree.

If Wash. U. does expand, there may be a need over time to lower total--but maybe not. I will say that total at one time was only about 75-80--and that increased to 90 in the last 4-5 years. When Theta folded in 2000 they had VERY small numbers compared to the other chapters--and now with 6 chapters on campus again (ChiO was colonized in 2003) the number of women going greek has only increased.

I'm proud of Wash. U. getting back to doing a more formal COB--while it is increasingly common for sophomores to rush (and get bids)--there are still some sophomores and juniors who do better in a COB setting then in a more formal recruitment setting. Maybe next year all 6 chapters will participate.