[als463]

Originally Posted by irishpipes

I think it's important to remember that a colony recruitment is the only recruitment a chapter will ever have where the new members are not chosen by the chapter. In an established chapter, especially on a competitive campus, it is vitally important for a PNM to have a connection to someone in the chapter to pull for her during recruitment. This situation is nonexistent in a colony recruitment since members are chosen by women who seldom have any connection to the campus in question. So, a PNM who is glorious but has no greek connections has equal footing in a colony recruitment, where in regular recruitment she would be at a severe disadvantage.

When AOII colonized at Arkansas, we came across so many wonderful young women who were the first to go to college in their families. This is VERY common at Arkansas. These young women tended to have little greek knowledge or pedigree, and therefore didn't know how to prepare for formal recruitment at such a competitive campus. They included Razorback cheerleaders, the Homecoming Queen (and future wife of American Idol winner Kris Allen), student government president, and on and on. We're not talking sub-par PNMs - just people who didn't plan for recruitment for a year in advance, or came from a smaller town and didn't have connections, or transferred in as a sophomore, etc. The established chapters, for the most part, could hit their 100+ quota without tapping into these unknown PNMs.

I think the situation in Arkansas has gotten even more dire, because even more of these types of students are coming into the university. Arkansas has a program that accepts bordering state students as in-state if they meet a very reasonable ACT requirement, so the university has grown a ton very rapidly. (Not to mention Walmart has some requirement that its vendors have an office in NW Arkansas so the area boomed as Walmart grew.)

irishpipes,
You make a really good point! I am so excited to see the incredible women that Phi Mu chooses to be members of the sisterhood! Good luck to all the ladies going through Recruitment (and colonization) at Arkansas!