The Recruitment Story That Became a Novel

[LettersofmyOwn]

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[tangelo212]

WOW. No kidding that's a saga! It sounds like despite your upsetting results after informal and through the semester, you seem like very responsible and levelheaded person now.

I cannot believe that some members from Blue have become physically violent towards your friend/expansion partner. Do the other chapters know about this? What have they had to say? It would seem like you'd only need Green, Yellow and Pink's votes to get a simple majority to open the campus for expansion; are you worried that Blue might sway these chapters to vote against it? Sabotage the vote, so to speak? Have Green, Yellow, and Pink been openly supportive of your efforts/expansion in general?

I'm so sorry to hear that the Greek Life Office has not been very supportive and that the Panhellenic "climate" so to speak is this hostile! It's very disheartening to read that your friend has to cut back on her involvement with expansion for her safety.

I have no personal experience with something like this, but I truly wish you the best of luck and success and I look forward to your updates.

[gee_ess]

I have no experience with expansion, so take my comments with a grain of salt, but my initial thought is that you should make an appointment to meet with Pink, Green, and Yellow's president, pan rep, etc to explain your motives and solicit their support before the meeting.

Looking forward to learning /hearing more about the process!

[33girl]

Originally Posted by LettersofmyOwn

I found out that here its slightly a numbers game. We have small caps for chapters (at the time only seventy five, now down to sixty five a year later, hopefully in anticipation of a new organization!) and many of the groups were only taking ten to fifteen girls (except of course, Pink, which is the smallest organization and was looking for something like 25 women).

Doesn't your campus have formal rush or use quota?

Even if every sorority is at total (65) going into rush, if 100 women complete rush, each of the 4 of them can still take 25 new members. Not allowing this will severely mess up the class distribution within the sororities and is probably how Pink got to have lower numbers than the other three.

Greek systems that are growing do not decrease total "in anticipation of a new organization." They add new orgs because interest in Greek life is so overwhelming, the new groups will be able to get up to the current total almost immediately. Check out the threads about expansion at Alabama.

[nittanyalum]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Doesn't your campus have formal rush or use quota?

Even if every sorority is at total (65) going into rush, if 100 women complete rush, each of the 4 of them can still take 25 new members. Not allowing this will severely mess up the class distribution within the sororities and is probably how Pink got to have lower numbers than the other three.

Greek systems that are growing do not decrease total "in anticipation of a new organization." They add new orgs because interest in Greek life is so overwhelming, the new groups will be able to get up to the current total almost immediately. Check out the threads about expansion at Alabama.

But more to the point, if several of the chapters also had spring informal rush, doesn't that mean they aren't all at total and the campus isn't ready to expand? I understand you were "devastated" by your experience, but you not only ignored the opportunity you could have had with Pink in favor of Blue and Green during fall rush, you ignored Blue in favor of Green in spring rush. Your still not getting a bid doesn't mean the greek life system is in need of another group.

[violetpretty]

As someone who has been on a Panhellenic Extension Committee, I have a few questions for you.

1. Are all of the chapters at total, including Pink? If not, how close are they?

2. Who is presenting to Panhellenic (i.e. your interest group or a Panhellenic-appointed committee)?

3. Do you have hard evidence that demand for sorority life is increasing? Has the number of women registered for recruitment been steadily climbing? I'm guessing no because total was lowered. The increase in percentage of Greeks at your school may be because of increased interest in fraternity life or a decrease in the number of enrolled students.

4. Has there been a large number of women cross released (cut by all 4,not suiciding, not dropping out) for no apparent reason? (Granted, you'll never know why a PNM was cut, but PNMs with a bad GPA, bad reputation, extremely unkempt appearance, junior/senior class standing--varies by school, extreme weirdness, etc. generally will be cut by every chapter and won't be the first women that a new colony would reach out to with the exception of upperclassmen)

5. What do you think adding a 5th NPC would add to your campus? Is there a niche not being fulfilled?

6. How big is your interest group?


Also, keep in mind that NPC Extension is not really the decision of the chapter presidents or any of the collegians. Every chapter at your school will have a Regional or National NPC Delegate who will make the final say in whether that chapter votes yes or no for Extension.

Based on the information you've given us, I think you're in for another disappointment.

Feel free to PM me.

[ladybug12]

Great questions and information violetpretty!

A CPC has to first vote on whether or not they want to open up for extension. Then, the remaining NPC groups are notified about this opportunity and decide if they are interested in coming onto this campus.

I believe that 2 or 3 NPC groups are then selected to make a campus visit and do a formal extension presentation.

Then each member of the CPC votes on which NPC group they would prefer to see extend on their campus...and like it has been said, the collegian presidents are guided by their national organizations on how to vote.

[pbear19]

I cannot offer practical advice about expansion. But, I am a person who tends to get emotionally attached to ideas. Not everyone does, but I can empathize with you there. And a few of the things you wrote in your post are really worrying me, and I want to caution you against getting overly emotionally attached to the idea of expansion. If I've learned one thing about Greek life over the years, both on my own campus, from friends at other schools, and on GC, it's that expansion doesn't happen just because a few women want it to. The stories I'm most familiar with personally all involved women who very much wanted expansion to happen, but it just wasn't right for the campus, and those women were disappointed to say the least.

I wish you the absolute best of luck. But no matter what, please be sure you have a plan B for your emotions.

[basket96]

I would also suggest getting the local Alumnae Panhellenic group involved. Your college Panhellenic adviser should be helping you, too. She can let you know if your idea is realistic at all. I know that the campus where I advise has talked about expansion for about 5 years, and yet, to date, no expansion has occurred. Others are right when they say this is a LONG process.

Good luck to you.

[Nanners52674]

Just a suggestion since you have stated that you wish to remain anonymous. I would take out your aim name in your profile and maybe edit your story a bit so its not so descriptive about the greek environement at your school. Many people on GC like to figure out the school a poster is from & their very good at it. Since i think i figured it out from your info and im in no way a sleuth i would suggest a few modifications

[33girl]

I just read this novel again.

OP - is your group the new multicultural sorority, or a different interest group altogether?

If the multicultural sororities don't rush with the NPC groups, you can't really say Panhel is voting for "expansion" if they vote to approve them as a member - it is more like a rubber stamp.

ETA: Apparently this "novel" was pulled from the shelves.

[Nanners52674]

Darn I know I told her to make changes but I didn't mean scrap the book!!!