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I've been waiting a while to put in my $.02, so here it is:
I went to a school that did deferred recruitment (freshman can only rush second semester) and there are Pros and Cons just like doing it in the Fall. Based on my experience both as a Rushee and as a Sorority Member, here are my thoughts:
Pros: You have time to adjust to campus, make friends, and find your niche without the pressure of rushing and pledging. You also have time to decide if you truly want to join a sorority (so you don't just come to campus and rush and decide it's not for you and sit around waiting for everyone else to arrive on campus because you dropped out). You can see what the visibility is of certain GLOs on campus and see what they do with their philanthropy (some sororities have events 1st semester e.g. AnchorSplash--put on by Delta Gamma and Phi Ball--a kickball tourney put on by Alpha Phi). Less girls drop out during pledging because they already know their time commitments prior to rushing and most girls really know they want to be Greek.
Cons: Many girls already come into rush with impressions of the various sororities (the BIGGEST con). Some girls don't rush because they're already too involved in other campus activities. Some girls don't rush because they have to come back early from Winter Break (btw, I think this is the STUPIDEST excuse--but I've heard it--in my opinion they shouldn't be Greek if they worry about not having 4 weeks of vacation instead of 3).
I really liked having deferred recruitment when I was rushing because I got a chance to make friends before Rush, and not just rely on a sorority for my social scene (I'm the type of girl that has various groups of friends, not just one). I knew tons of girls that went to each sorority on campus, plus still had my GDI friends too.
But I will say that when I was in a sorority deferred recruitment had its down side. Some great girls I knew didn't rush because they were already active in other orgs and didn't think they needed a sorority too. Plus it sucks when girls come into rush with their mind made up based off of what they 'heard' about the various sororities--but I'm sure that happens too with Fall Rush (although maybe not to the same extent).
My school has thriving Greek Life for both sororities and fraternities. Our Panhel expanded from 5 to 6 sororities this year, and IFC has 12 fraternities. I don't know about IFC, but the number of girls rushing NPCs has increased from 220 (when I rushed in Spring '99) to well over 300 this year.
So, there you have it folks; my opinion on deferred recruitment. It's not the end of the world if UNC-CH decides to do it; but there may be consequences for doing so (when Wash. U. switched to deferred recruitment it really hurt one sorority in particular that ended up folding in 2000--however, the other 5 managed fine).
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