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Pardon the lane swerve, but I think the issue is that with SEC schools and other schools with a similarly strict, rarely changing hierarchy (Indiana, USC, Texas, etc), is that the information about tiers doesn't often change and is readily available. I think what everybody here is forgetting is the culture that all these PNMs (and fraternity rushees, for that matter) came from...high school.
Ah, yes, high school, where you were either popular or not. In high school essentially the popular kids have the parties, the popular kids are the face of the school, the popular kids are the guardians of everything hip and cool and start all the trends. Although non-popular kids can enjoy high school as well, look at how much angst and social climbing there is to be popular in high school...at many schools, it seems like it is the only opportunity to have fun and be involved.
And then flash forward to college. Juniors and seniors have by now realized that college is a whole different beast...ANYBODY can have fun at college and be involved. Hell, even the biggest Icky Iota on campus has fun parties, has people on student government and dance teams, dates fun guys, etc. But to a freshman PNM who is just months out of high school, I think she (and he, to be fair) hears about the tiers the second she starts rush and is going to be focused on that throughout the whole process. If she wasn't popular in high school, this is her chance to redeem herself. If she was, she certainly doesn't want a downgrade. I think in most of their minds, popular = the only chapters that will have fun, just like in high school.
The issue here is that I'm not sure this mindset is something that can be changed, even with RFM and patient recruitment counselors and whatever. This is something that comes with maturity, and with living on campus long enough to realize, "Oh, nobody really cares about high school status anymore, anybody can have fun and be themselves."
So I guess my question is (and I know absolutely nothing about sorority rush, so flame away if I'm way off) do the nationals of Icky Iotas (and I'm sure everybody has a couple, just like everybody has amazing chapters) put together a plan for them to recruit a little differently? Obviously go through formal rush, but also with the understanding that this isn't our main way to get new members? I know all those chapters COB already, but it seems to me that even with RFM there are still problems for Icky Iotas...at what point does everybody stop trying to make the system perfectly fair and change, frankly, the immature mindset of 1,000+ PNMs, and instead admit that maybe Icky Iota will never shine during formal recruitment, and that's an OK thing, and then tweak and work on improving COBing instead?
If all of this is dead wrong from a sorority perspective, then tell me so. But it seems like from reading all the stories around here that it is damn near impossible for an Icky Iota at a super-competitive campus to change their status by formal recruitment.
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