[33girl]

The pledge house is not a normal thing for any group. It's purely to prevent the logistical nightmare that filming the pledges at their respective apartments/dorms would be. I mean, in my class (which had 5) only 2 of us were in the same dorm. And even if we would have been filmed, there is the issue of blurring everyone around us who doesn't want to be in on it. With the pledge house, they can say "you walk in this house, you are giving consent to be on film."

As far as the bids/selectivity issue, it reminded me of A Phi O - there is no voting on who will pledge, but the pledge process must be completed satisfactorily. I understand the "are you Jewish" and "how did you find out about us" comments - if my chapter had a sudden influx of women showing up at rush parties (and coincidentally when MTV shows up) and they were a lot different than the rushees we usually get, I would be wary too.