[PhoenixAzul]

I know that half of our chapters here at Otterbein (sororities and fraternities) are rushed, pledged and initiated in the same quarter (we work on quarters, not semesters...10 weeks per quarter). Our girls are rushed and pledged during winter quarter. If all goes according to plan, they are initiated one week before finals week, to allow study time. THe other half stop pledging activities one week before finals, allow the n.ms to study, then after spring break, they finish pledging and are initiated usually the 2nd week of spring quarter. It's either a 6 week or 8 week pledge period. However, we did have one fraternity just initiate their n.ms about 2 weeks ago...which would make it about 10 weeks for them. It's their perogative though.

However, the initiation date should NEVER be set in stone. I don't know about NPC/NIC chapters, but we have the option of extended an entire class' new member period (sometimes called "plactive" (somewhere between pledge and active) status) in case of a) chapter emergency b) conflict c) schedule conflicts d) class unpreparedness. The bottom line is that we do not want to initiate members until we are certain that they will be able to act together as responsible, mature, and contributing members of the active chapter.

I'd be against having a campus rule on when we must initiate members for that reason alone..it would force chapters to initiate members who are not ready and take the decision away from the N.M. Educator and exec boards. Ultimately I think it would have the potential to be detrimental to chapter membership...new members who didn't quite get the mechanics of cooperation, togetherness and other chapter values during their pledge period could make for dysfunctional chapter interactions.

Just a thought.