[aephi alum]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

Because APO, like most national organizations, Greek or not, doesn't guarantee local autonomy of the chapter:

I see. Thanks for the info.

Originally Posted by Benzgirl

When my dad was at MIT in the 50s, they pledged before classes began and immediately moved into the house. Otherwise, there was nowhere else to live unless you rented a room in someone's house.

Originally Posted by alum

That's how it was in the 90's for my brother. Members from various MIT fraternities hosted functions in the Boston area during his rising freshman summer. He accepted a bid in July or August and never spent a night in a dorm.

That has changed somewhat. I believe all MIT freshmen must live in the dorms.

I was at MIT in the 1990s. At the time, freshmen came to campus about a week and a half before classes started, and were assigned temporary rooms in the dorm system. Rush (not recruitment ) took place right away. Men who wanted to join fraternities would participate in fraternity rush, and the moment a man signed a bid, he moved straight from his temp room into his new fraternity's house. Same thing with men and women who were interested in independent living groups. (There were six ILGs when I was there - five coed and one all-women.) Women interested in joining an NPC sorority would go through sorority rush.

At the same time, we also had dorm rush. Freshmen would visit each dorm, take tours, and try to get a feel for each dorm's distinctive personality. People participating in fraternity or ILG rush were told to go through dorm rush in case they didn't get a bid. Freshmen who didn't want to go greek pretty much had to go through dorm rush. Same thing for women rushing NPC sororities - only one chapter had a house when I was a freshman, and that house wasn't big enough for the whole chapter, so almost all freshmen in sororities lived in the dorm system.

There was a summer rush program as alum described, however, bids could not formally be offered or accepted until fall rush. (ETA: It wasn't confined to the Boston area. Also, sororities could do summer rush (strict silence didn't begin until freshmen started arriving on campus), and we could pair up with fraternities. I attended more than one summer rush party in NYC as an active AEPhi.)

In the fall of 1997, Scott Krueger, a FIJI pledge, died of alcohol poisoning, allegedly as a result of a pledging activity. (This incident is what 33girl is talking about.) As a result, some VERY strict alcohol rules were put into place. A new dorm was built, and now all freshmen must live on campus. NPC recruitment was deferred to the start of the spring semester for a few years, but now it's back to the start of the fall semester. IFC recruitment was moved from August to September. So freshmen can join GLOs, but they have to wait until the start of their sophomore year to move into the house.