[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

I feel like we went in the other direction. We had an entire committee devoted to "Keep Rushing Our Phis", and while there were some women who were unsure about staying, and could really make connections in those first few weeks, begging women to stay long enough to be initiated doesn't do anything except ensure they'll drop out right AFTER initiation.

I served on a committee and found that the research done by other NPCs about terminations says that the summer after initiation (if a girl is a freshman NM, the summer before soph year) is the average termination time (meaning that most of those who terminate, do so at that point.)

It makes sense, as you are no longer a NM, you have been initiated long enough to see that being an initiated member is vastly different from being worshipped as a NM, so you quit.

So, if you want to improve retention, you don't start with the NM period. It's all about that critical sophomore year and ensuring a good transition from NM to initiated member. I think Total Member Ed does a good job of that. The sophomore sequence activities are designed to do just that. NPC groups who implement Total Member Ed type programs experienced a large increase in 4 year retention.