[KSUViolet06]

This story reminds me of something that happened at my school.

Last fall, there was a chapter that had been placed on some sort of probation by their HQ. As part of their probation, they weren't allowed to have social events (date party, formal, etc) and they were not permitted to participate in Homecoming activities for one year.

Panhellenic was aware of this, but didn't feel that it was their responsibility to let PNMs know that XYZ was on probation and what that meant. It was announced at PHC meetings that there would be no mention of XYZ's probation at Recruitment Orientation and that other sororities were not to comment on it if a PNM asked about it during a party.

Panhellenic basically left it up to XYZ to let the PNMs know about it. Of course no sorority wants to tell PNMs "you should join us, but we can't do anything fun until next year." So they decided it would be best not to mention it during recruitment.

So girls went through recruitment knowing nothing about it. If they heard "tent talk" about it, they asked their Rho Chi, who told them they knew nothing about it. So the PNMs either figured it was a rumor or that it was no big deal.

XYZ pledged quota of new members on Bid Day. Then of course since they were new members, they started to learn more about the chapter and heard rumblings about probation and not having socials. So they were curious and started asking about it.

A few weeks after Bid Day, the XYZ new member educator sat the new girls down and told them about the probation situation. They were really upset because they felt totally lied to. HALF of their new member class depledged and most of them ended up joining other sororities the next year.

So I guess that's a story about how NOT to handle probation issues during recruitment. I'd rather see a chapter be honest during recruitment and have some girls cut them, than not mention it, pledge quota, and then have girls depledge because they were lied to.