Quote:
Originally Posted by 33girl
As far as length of pledge periods, I think that honestly should go back to a chapter by chapter basis. 6 weeks was perfect for us, but I'm sure the ASAs at James Madison (a chapter 3-4 times our size) would love a full semester. It makes no sense to basically say to chapters that we understand and support that what is one chapter's ideal rushee may not be another chapter's ideal rushee, and then turn around and say that all pledges have to be educated in exactly the same way.
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Thank you. Those are exactly my thoughts. We are at a campus where total is 200, and most chapters are considerably above that, and we are preparing for new member classes of 90+ again in August. I meet with other chapter ABCs, and we all say the same thing (except for the Chi Omega advisor): "we want to have a semester long new member period". Why not be proactive and try it and see what the results are? What is the harm in trying that? Honestly, we all have struggled with various disciplinary issues with these new member classes (academic and behavioral). The new members themselves complain that they don't know the other members in their class, let alone the rest of the chapter. The cliques are ugly. A semester would afford the opportunity to do much more support and integration of these new members, and they'd ideally have more education about the "WHY" of sorority membership, and not just the "WHAT".