Univ. of Southern Callifornia NPC Panhellenic Changes Recruitment Schedule

[Football Fan]

Panhellenic at the University of Southern California has voted to change the recruitment schedule. Next August recruitment will begin before the beginning of classes. There will no longer be formal fall recruitment events which conflict with academic classes.

Recruitment will begin the Friday before the first week of classes and be completed on Bid Night the following Friday evening.

Greek organizations have been at USC for over 100 years. Panhellenic welcomed the return of Alpha Gamma Delta in 2013.

USC is a private university and has around 1450 women in the freshmen class.



Photo of Doheny Library on the SC campus.

[WCsweet<3]

Having recruitment during classes is so rough! I'm very interested to see how this turns out. USC still has a somewhat frilly recruitment still right? I'm remembering hair flipping.

[ChioLu]

Since USC's sorority houses are several blocks from the university, having recruitment before school starts makes sence from a geography standpoint.
Running from a class to attend parties makes for some sweaty PNM's.

[Diluxi]

Originally Posted by WCsweet<3

Having recruitment during classes is so rough! I'm very interested to see how this turns out. USC still has a somewhat frilly recruitment still right? I'm remembering hair flipping.

Panhellenic voted to ban door stacks this year, so there should be significantly less hair flipping. They also banned the long-standing tradition of lawn songs last year, so I'd say USC is definitely moving in the direction of fewer frills.

For the uninitiated:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnn6FIewe-w

Door stacks were typically performed at the end of each House Tour round, after the PNMs had left the house to stand on the sidewalk. In case you can't quite tell from the video, it basically involves members from each house screaming various XYZ-related chants while bouncing and/or flipping their hair in time. The effect is more than a little terrifying for PNMs who aren't expecting it, imho (not to mention the horror stories of women messing up the count and cracking skulls with their neighbor...)

[WestcoastWonder]

Thank goodness! I remember having light, unintentional hairflips during door chants, but it looks like they're trying to put each other in neck braces! ouch!

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by Diluxi

Panhellenic voted to ban door stacks this year, so there should be significantly less hair flipping. They also banned the long-standing tradition of lawn songs last year, so I'd say USC is definitely moving in the direction of fewer frills.

For the uninitiated:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnn6FIewe-w

And we wonder why Greeks are looked at like we have two heads sometimes…

I'm not trying to be disrespectful or anything, but this is the weirdest tradition. And I think it was smart of them to get rid of it.

[33girl]

I would think all that flipping and shouting would give a girl somewhat of a head rush/buzz. Maybe that was method to the madness.

[ChioLu]

Originally Posted by 33girl

I would think all that flipping and shouting would give a girl somewhat of a head rush/buzz. Maybe that was method to the madness.

As an LA alumna, do you think the USC "hair flipping" is not a way to reduce alcohol imbibing during recruitment? Seriously, the overindulgence of alcohol at USC is an challenge on it's own

[Pearly]

ChioLu I am very sure that there would be zero tolerance for drinking during recruitment. Recruitment is very important to each and every house and they all want to do well. Usually there are many advisors and parents present not to mention the fact that the days are very long with many parties and then set up for the next round of recruitment. I think it is sad that door block has been banned as I thought it was a unique USC tradition. It definitely was a shock and awe moment for the pnm's.

[Titchou]

Door block - or "stacking" - is not unique to USC! The hair flipping, maybe, but stacking is very common in many places.

[AOII Angel]

I'm glad to see the recruitment moved to before school. I pledged before school started. Recruitment is sooo stressful without adding a full day of classes on top of it. I don't know how grades don't suffer when students are staying up to all hours in bid sessions then cleaning up from parties.

[Maman]

Conversation days will be held on Saturday and Sunday before classes start on Monday. The rest of recruitment will still be held during the first week of classes. Bid night will be Friday with the first home football game the next day.

The change is to move the most intense part of recruitment to occur prior to the start of classes. The schedule change also allows recruitment to be completed prior to the first home football game. Two years ago the schedule had a gap during recruitment and bid night was after the first football game.

[TweedleDee199]

This always seemed like the better option to me. Oregon went the opposite route this year and pushed recruitment back to beginning on the Wednesday of the second week of school with the intent of giving everyone time to get acclimated to classes. I'm interested to see how it works out.

[Football Fan]

Panhellenic at USC has posted the new schedule for August formal NPC recruitment. Some of the "party" dates do occur on days when classes are being held.

Rules Symposium
Friday No classes on this day
August 22 8:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m.

Conversation Days
Saturday 10:00 a.m. August 23
Sunday Noon August 24
All 10 chapters will be visited

House Tours
Monday 5:10 p.m. August 25
Tuesday 5:10 p.m. August 26
Up to 8 chapters may be visited by invitation

Slideshow Day
Wednesday 5:10 p.m. August 27
Up to 5 chapters may be visited by invitation

Preference Day
Thursday 5:00 p.m. August 28
Up to 2 chapters may be visited by invitation

Bid Day
Friday 4:00 p.m. August 29

[Football Fan]

Last year the number of parties was:
10-7-4-2 Bid Night

This year the number is:
10-8-5-2 Bid Day