This is not unusual in the slightest at the U of Arkansas, and I have no doubt it is the norm for UT....I have personally seen:
Boxes upon boxes of hand decorated bakery cookies with a pnms name in icing on each...
Large galvanized tubs painted on the outside with "So and So is a KEY Rushee" and then filled with individual bottled waters with homemade labels with the same message printed on each...
Sleeves of special order styrofoam cups with rushees' name printed on each...
Custom ordered notepads(stickies) and pens/pencils with names on them...
The list could go on and on...
The kicker? Our chapter does NOT accept these gifts. (but other GLOs on our campus do, so it is confusing to the general alumnae population) We send out this info every year to no avail. It still gets sent. The advisor must hide the styrofoam cups (I actually gave them to the girl after she pledged), rip off the carefully applied labels on the water, SCRAPE off the names from each cookie or across the massive sheet cake, before letting the actives see anything.
Call the recruitment chair or advisor and ask if they have a policy before wasting your money. We do allow more general gifts which are welcome. For example, if the Dallas alumnae group wants to send a basket of candies that says something like, "Good Luck during Recruitment from the Dallas Area Alum Assoc." then that is acceptable since it is not technically endorsing anyone.
Just one more way the good ol' South seems to make itself a contender for number one in the BizarroWorld of recruitment! 