Quote:
Originally Posted by Allo
Last year I attended a small private university that held their formal recruitment in the spring semester, I didn't end up going through recruitment last year but many many of my friends did and I heard all the stories and gory details. In theory this extended get to know you time is a good idea, it gives people a whole semester to get to know each other. But the real result is that PNMs spend the whole semester walking on egg shells and unintentionally screwing up their chances for recruitment for an entire semester. We are only human, sorority members and PNMs. People who can be jealous, catty and vengeful. Everyone makes makes mistakes! So in my experience what I saw with that spring recruitment was that in the fall semester many girls who would have made wonderful members would hook up with or start dating a prominent sorority member's ex, not knowing the whole tumultuous relationship and break up had happened. Then prominent sorority member, because she to is a person with emotions, holds a grudge against unknowing PNM and when recruitment finally came around unknowing PNM doesn't gets cut.
I saw that situation quite a few times as well as many others. Some of my very good friends had their hearts broken in the spring because they didn't get a bid and had no idea why, only to later find that it was because they made some slip up the previous semester never knowing that wasn't something they should do. I also saw active members strike up friendships with PNMs and bid promise through out the semester. It was basically a huge mess! And from the stories the older girls told that happened every year.
When I think about what I witnessed last year and the experience I just had last week, I know that the traditional fall recruitment is really the best way to do things. Yes it would be nice if the first round was longer so that chapters could get more of an impression of the girls before making cuts, but it is a system that works and is successful! It was successful for me and and for that Pi Chi who wrote that article.
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Bid promising happens at pre-freshman rush schools, too. If girls are doing that, it's not the fault of the timing. It's the fault of the girls not being educated that it's an uncool thing to do, and most likely pressured to maintain and increase membership numbers by any means necessary.
If your school is so small that you're continually going to trip over people's exes and drama, you need to learn to manage it sooner rather than later. Six degrees of separation....ha!! Half that. Quite frankly, I'd rather bid women who are already conducting themselves in a discreet and adult manner and have figured it out on their own, rather than bidding a girl and giving her a "dos and don'ts" list. That to me is just one of the worst sorority stereotypes come to life.
I hate to use the term "hookup culture" but it seems like that (which there's always been a certain amount of in college) and the increased photo/internet documentation of everything under the sun has made this sort of jealousy and pettiness worse. It's one thing when you hear that some random girl hooked up with your ex. It sucks but you usually pretty quickly get over it. It's another thing when you can Facebook/Twittter stalk her, obsess over her pictures and see her face all the time. The wound doesn't heal.