Rush Timing?!?

[ZetaLuvBunny]

Apparently, my school (MTSU) is going to have formal NPC recruitment a WEEK BEFORE classes even start next Fall. Personally I don't like this, for a couple of reasons (probably more that I can't think of right now).....

1) Girls who didn't know about rush prior to coming to college won't have the opportunity to sign-up for it.

2) If the dorms aren't even open , how can the girls who aren't from this area -- especially out-of-state -- be there??? Normally, the dorms don't open until a couple of days before classes begin.

Does anyone else's school do early rush, and if so, what are the advantages and disadvantages? The year I went through, it was the 3rd week of classes, and last year it was the 2nd week. It seems to be getting earlier every year.

[UKDaisy]

Don't freak out! It'll be okay. My school does rush that way too, and although I never went through it I know girls who did. They open the dorms to those girls who are rushing. My school also sent out a pamplet of information about the sororities and recruitment week.

I'm a fan of waiting until school is over. But this year UK had like over 800 girls rush. So don't worry. It'll work out.

[Thetagurl]

we always do rush a week before school starts and it works out great....don't sweat it

[PenguinTrax]

This is actually what happens on most campuses. Greek Life/Panhellenic needs to make sure that Recruitment information is included with mail packets that are sent to all incoming freshman. The school will usually open up one dorm for the PNMs to live in during Recruitment and things go smoothly from there.

Speak to other ZTAs this summer at NLC regarding how this works out - trust me, it'll be fine!

[SigkapAlumWSU]

Our school does this as well, and it works out. All the dorms on our campus are open on sunday, one week before school starts. This is called "Week of Welcome" for the incoming freshman. For those (guys and girls) who are going through rush, they have a day before the parties start to unpack and get a little settled. For those who aren't going through, there are activities each day to let the freshman get to know each other, and the school. These range from BBQ's to Dorm sponsored dances at night to sports. They can find classrooms, check out the Rec center, and anything else on campus. I think that this is a really good system because students have more than just one day to get settled before classes start and there are more than just the PNM's on campus.

[aephi alum]

My school used to run rush this way. (Recruitment... whatever. ) Freshmen arrived on campus about 2 weeks before classes started. Rush began the day after freshmen arrived, and lasted 5 days for sororities, and about the same length of time for fraternities. The following week was "dead week" which was when academic orientation activities took place. Then classes started.

You didn't have to pre-register for sorority rush. There was an information session right at the start of rush, where you met the rho chi's and deaffiliated Panhel officers, filled out a registration form, and then were taken to your first round parties.

Dorms were open, but only to freshmen and upperclassmen with permission to return early.

Having rush before classes begin has the advantage that both PNMs and sisters/brothers can concentrate fully on rush without having to worry about class assignments and tests. Plus, PNMs haven't really been exposed to rumors/reputations/stereotypes, and may therefore be going in with more of an open mind. OTOH, deferred rush gives PNMs a chance to see what greek life is about, a chance to meet current members, and a chance to get acclimated to college life before going through the stress of rush. As with anything - it's a trade-off.

[aopinthesky]

>>>1) Girls who didn't know about rush prior to coming to college won't have the opportunity to sign-up for it.

2) If the dorms aren't even open , how can the girls who aren't from this area -- especially out-of-state -- be there??? Normally, the dorms don't open until a couple of days before classes begin<<<

Zeta,
All the schools that I know about that do recruitment before school starts make arrangements for both of your concerns. 1) The campus Panhellenic sends a recruitment packet to every incoming freshman girl complete with registration materials and 2) The school opens a dorm for recruitment and the girls stay there, or if it is very close to the beginning of school and they aren't requiring that they all stay in the same place, they will allow them to go ahead and move into their residence hall.

It works fine and the schools don't lack for PNM's.

[FuzzieAlum]

I wouldn't say MOST schools do it - generally very big schools do it. It helps them out logistically with room assignments, for one thing.

There are pros and cons, like with any other system; the biggest con I can think of is that students may not be aware of Greek life or interested at that point. Of course, depending on your Greek climate, the same may be true of rush held the first week of school, or girls may be able to informal later. The biggest pro is that rush does not interfere with classwork.

The biggest thing I would worry about in your case is the difficulty of making a transition like that. The school has to be prepared to get the word out to incoming students early, and the sororities have to be ready to come back early. I think the first point is especially important - rush shouldn't be limited to those girls who have known since age 5 they wanted to be Greek and managed to find the information hidden away in one of the many school mailings. If your school can handle that well, though, you'll be fine.

[sugar and spice]

I agree, FuzzieAlum -- by no means do most schools do this kind of recruitment, but the ones with very strong, popular, large Greek systems almost universally do, especially in the South. If the school in question doesn't have a huge Greek system, the before-school recruitment period may not work out too well because sororities will lack the time to convert "maybe PNMs," the girls who are undecided about rushing or want to take their time getting adjusted to a new campus before joining.

[Betarulz!]

I agree not all schools do it, sometimes not even ones where the greek system is huge and popular (like at Kansas).

However here at Nebraska the sororities do it the way you are moving to. Everyone has already pretty much explained how it will work.

One thing I'm going to touch on is getting girls who aren't sure if they want to go greek. COB becomes very important and it is where houses that may have been very weak in formal recruitment can make up ground since the strong houses are limited by total and having made quota. I know several girls who COB'd and they are in houses that they wouldn't have been in had they gone through formal rush.

COB is where you will pick up those girls who either arent' sure they want to go through rush, or who don't know about it.

Hopefully the help you've gotten from GC will put you at ease. Good luck!

[ZetaLuvBunny]

Thanks you guys! Well, about my school: I don't know if you would consider it "HUGE", but it is fairly large, and we have a somewhat large Greek system. MTSU has approx. 22,000 students. The mainly social Greeks include 7 NPC sororities, 12 IFC fraternities, 4 NPHC sororities, 4 NPHC fraternities, 1 local sorority (somehow they're now a member of our local Panhellenic Council... not sure how this works, though), and numerous Greek-lettered honors clubs, religious groups, and volunteer organizations.

I'm not so much worried about us not having enough PNMs (we had over 400 girls signed up last yr), I'm just concerned a little about (like sugar & spice said) the chance that some of the best PNMs could be girls who hadn't even considered, or even known about Greek Life prior to coming to college.

Anyhow, thanks for clearing up all of that for me! Something I'm still wondering about, however, is how we're going to do our "Greek Week"? I suppose PNMs will have to come two weeks prior to the start of school for that? Annually, we have a Greek Week which includes a "Sorority Interest Meeting", "Meet the Greeks picnic", a "GreekFest", "Mud Volleyball", and several other things.

[Blaire]

Maybe I can clear some things up.... I am a Delta Zeta at MTSU and I serve on our Panhellenic Council. First, the Recruitment dates have not been set in stone, so to speak. Our Greek Life director and our Recruitmen Coordinator are going to speak to the President's of each sorority at the next Presiden'ts meeting. Plus, they have to find out from the President of the University if these dates are acceptable.

I too was concerned about attracting new members....however, one of the women on Panhellenic Exec. board made an excellent point...when the girls are sent out brochures to sign up for Recruitment, the dates will be provided. If Recruitment is important to them, then they will come. Plus, I think (so don't quote me on this yet!!!) the University will open the dorms early for these girls.

I hope this clears up any confusion....oh, and Phi Chi, our local, was asked to be an honorary member of Panhellenic out of respect.

Greek love,
Blaire

[ZetaLuvBunny]

Thanks Blaire!

Yeah about the dorm thing- I asked Meredith who was Panhellenic President last year, and now our Recruitment Chair. She said they probably will open up the dorms early for them. The more I think about this, it actually seems like it could be beneficial. Some girls might even have night classes or work or other activities that could interfere with their ability to rush if we had it during the semester still.

BTW- If I'm not mistaken, you were in my Spanish I class a year ago! I never see you on campus anymore! How have you been??? If you're not the DZ I'm thinking about, I probably sound like a dummy. :P Just smack me upside the head if I'm wrong. hehe