Quote:
Originally Posted by carnation
It's been several years now...what do you think?
My opinion:
GOOD--it has certainly beefed up a lot of sororities. Groups who haven't met quota for years, especially at the big schools, are now at total. Under the old rules, many of those groups would have certainly been gone by now.
In many big schools' recruitments, all the sororities have made quota for years and are even adding new groups (like Auburn, Warrrr Eagle! And Theta is coming!  ) I'm so happy with the growth of the Greek systems around here.
BAD--the deep cuts after second parties are really devastating to a lot of PNMs. We know so many who have gone from 12 parties on Day 2 to 0-2 on Day 3. Frequently these are either girls from small towns who are unknown by sorority members or those from huge high schools that have lots of sorority members on that campus and the members think that their sorority will be the only one to cut Polly PNM but surely she'll have a lot of options left--but she doesn't.(I hope that makes sense.) The shock of those cuts is so rough that many drop out of recruitment (hey, they're 18) and have a bad impression of Greeks forever. Remember justamom's discussion of that at LSU?
Also, I'm told by many sorority members that more pledges are dropping before initiation. Some say that they were pressured by rush counselors to stay in recruitment when they didn't like their returns. I wonder what the dropout rate is now compared to, say, 10 years ago?
My last concern, and I've talked about this for years, is that legacies aren't being looked at as carefully because everyone's in such a hurry to cut a certain number. In the last 10 years, we only know 2 girls who were able to pledge their mom's sorority at UGA and dozens who were cut by mom's group.
So what do you think? |
Hi Carnation. Having done recruitment for a long time I think there are some positive things to the new release figures and some negative things. It is my opinion that the release figures are great for 98% of the Chapters. There are still some places that I know of personally that Panhellenic does not make the PNM's go to there full party list for fear they will drop out. They still get bids AND are considered to have fully participated in recruitment. I think it has helped Chapters who historically have not made quota make quota and put Chapters on more of a level playing field in regards to size.
I think the new release figures are hard on the PNM's. I think a lot of great girls are cut because of first impressions. I think that there are a lot of girls who fall under the radar because they were not able to light up the room and impress a Chapter member in 20 to 30 minutes. I also know that we look at recs now with a different approach. If your a strong Chapter you can NOT invite back all your recs because then you would be releasing women you really want.
As far as new members dropping, we have not experienced that, but I do think there are women who find themselves in houses were they feel like they don't belong. I think the shortened educational programs also are to blame along with this generation just not being able to stick with what they start.
Lastly, to comment on the legacies. I think we do a good job at looking at them and keeping them as long as we can. Our Chapter may get 10 legacies going through, but some Chapters could have 50 or more depending on where you are. I would imagine this Chapters are letting go of legacies earlier than some other ones might. I think a legacy makes a great new member and we should try to take as many as we can, however, at my school it can be the kiss of death.