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At my big Midwestern school, only one fraternity that I know of initiates before grades are available, and they are the only one without a chapter house. The rest (nearly 20) wait until grades are posted. Since we do nearly 100% of our recruitment through the summer (again only the non housed chapter has any sort of substantial school year recruitment) we actually have a 17 week pledge period, with initiations held either the first or second week back from winter break. Our pledges can also live in the chapter houses from day one. Thus, part of the financial burden is mandatory because they're living and paying for the chapter house and facilities.
I am 100% for waiting until grades are posted before any sort of initiation or pre-initiation ceremonies are conducted. It's easier to stop someone from initiation than to kick them out and it's a lot less stress for everyone.
I would make sure that the chapters inform their new members that initiation is contingent on achieving a minimum GPA, and that new members who don't reach that will be carried over according to each individual organization's bylaws and constitution. Those members who succeed without any problem initiate as soon as possible after grades are posted and school is back in session. The whole class is not punished for the failings of one. I don't think it is a good idea to have the possibility that pledgeship is extended due to sketchy terms like "class unreadiness" -- if the expectations are clear and are met, then they initiate.
I would also say that I'm VERY much against the whole "shortened" pledge program for all organizations (within reason - any thing much longer than a semester is overkill). On my own campus one NPC group (a very large one) waits until grades are posted at semester before initiating - our sororities have recruitment the week before classes start in August so they also have a semester long pledgeship while other chapters only go for 6-8 weeks. From four years of seeing how the sororities function, I can tell you that the sorority that waits for grades has much higher retention of older members, higher involvement in chapter activities, and far less clique-ieness than any other sorority chapter. Every other chapter has far higher numbers of ladies that don't stay in the chapter for four years, transfer, only show up for football games or formals, or don't have any of their best friends in their chapter.
I realize that there are issues over hazing and such, but I don't think that shortened pledge periods are necessary nor sufficient to address the problems of hazing.
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