Quote:
Originally Posted by angels&angles
W&L is really small, and really insular. I think we mostly get away with it because freshmen are so very clueless. Rho Gams for sophomores basically don't even try (Rho Gam groups are assigned by halls and freshmen and upperclassmen don't mix). Also, as I noted, trying to put too many restrictions on it would make it impossible for Rho Gams to see their friends. I bet if we had a September recruitment the rules would be a lot more strict (since they're unbelievably strict in every other aspect of recruitment... we got in trouble once for putting bows on our trashcans, and hanging sheets to hide our extra tables [ugh]).
I only added that due to excelblue's original query,
Which seems like a silly question, and no one had really addressed it, but so much of sorority recruitment is baffling to the outsider I thought I'd reply.
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I guess what I was saying is that for a couple of weeks, I don't get why it's a big deal to make new friends. My social life never suffered as a RC in the least...I went out more often than I would have if I had been affiliated and had a blast, then enjoyed the big ridiculous girly crying reunion on Bid Day. But then I didn't see any girls who couldn't handle that trying out for the position because our RC applicants were usually sent by the chapters, so girls who wouldn't have been able to survive (and would have broken down and risked getting their chapter in trouble by breaking silence) wouldn't have been sent in the first place.
It actually was addressed, but surely that would be the same campus to campus. ("That" being putting school before sorority). And like I said work was an exception for us too, both between RCs and actives and PNMs and actives. It was just expected that there wouldn't be any discussions about recruitment.
I always thought our rules were too stringent, not because they asked too much of the Greek women but because there were so many of them that actives would get paranoid about breaking them. They would sometimes concentrate more on that than they would on making good impressions on the PNMs. And would sometimes appear rude because they were following the rules. For instance, there is never supposed to be any gift giving between an active and PNM and I heard a story about a PNM who needed a pencil to take a test in class and asked the active next to her...who was so scared of getting her chapter in trouble she refused. Poor PNM thought she'd offended the active and we had to explain to her that the active was just trying to follow the rules to a T. During strict silence I've seen actives ignore PNMs completely when really IMO it's totally appropriate to say "hi" or at least acknowledge the girl with a smile and wave. But again, they were too worried about getting in trouble to risk it. We tried to make sure PNMs understood how seriously most actives took these rules and that the women were by no means purposefully being rude, but even so I'm sure it was unsettling to be ignored no matter what the reason.