Underground Pledging

[valmypal]

Does anyone have any information on this? I'm a Graduate Assitant and Advisor to the greeks at a new school and I've discovered that they have a severe case of underground pledging, mostly with the fraternities but occasionally sororities will do this too. At our school, a 1st semester freshman can not join a fraternity or sorority so we have our formal recruitment in the spring. The problem is some of the fraternities have freshmen join their pledging in the fall to get numbers for nationals, then they just pretend they are pledging these freshman in the spring for our campus policy. We were talking about ways to discourage the fraternities from doing this but we didn't get very far. Also, at my undergraduate school, one sorority got in trouble and the next semester (or maybe it was for a year) they were not allowed to take any new members. I'm pretty sure this was set by their nationals. I was just confused because I didn't know if that was something Panhel agreed with and i didn't think that was very positive for the chapter since they would then lose numbers. Thanks!

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by valmypal

i didn't think that was very positive for the chapter since they would then lose numbers. Thanks!

I think that was the point...you get caught dirty rushing, and you loose privileges (like having a pledge class the next semester). I'd say it's pretty fair, and a good deterrent to keep people from trying, as long as it's make publicly known and enforced fairly and across the board.

[adpiucf]

Send a letter to the chapters, their advisers, and IHQ's stating that the university is on the deferred recruitment system and they may not pledge new members or hold recruitment activities with PNMs from DATE-DATE. During this time they may be supportive of PNMs and pro-Greek Life, but cannot dirty rush, pledge or hold any PNM to voicing a preference for their GLO or any other. Any chapters who are in violation of this silence period will risk disciplinary action by the university, which can result in being suspended from recruitment activities for the year or participation in social activities with other Greeks, including mixers and Homecoming/Greek Week. Continued violation of the silence period may result in chapter suspension and recognition. Encourage the chapters to observe the rule and to help enforce it within their own chapter and with the Greek System at-large.

Remind your Panhellenic and IFC delegates and have them remind their chapters. Call a meeting of the chapter presidents and advisers and do the same. Have a form for rush infractions that includes dirty rushing/pledging during the silence period.

Talk to the school newspaper. Likely they will want to jump on this and run a story. If you send out marketing materials to incoming freshman or have a website, make sure that PNMs understand they may not pledge or rush before the spring semester.

At freshman orientation, make a Greek Life presentation, espousing the benefits of joining a fraternity or a sorority. Encourage the PNMs to register for recruitment, look at the Greek websites and think about going Greek. Explain the silence dates and that if they attend a recruitment function, pledge or otherwise rush or are promised a bid to any GLO during the silence period, they risk specific discipline: IE: university sanction, not being permitted to rush for a full calendar year, etc.

Bottom line: enforce this firmly and fairly, and let all parties know of the appropriate dates and repercussions for both the chapters and the PNMs.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by valmypal

Also, at my undergraduate school, one sorority got in trouble and the next semester (or maybe it was for a year) they were not allowed to take any new members. I'm pretty sure this was set by their nationals. I was just confused because I didn't know if that was something Panhel agreed with and i didn't think that was very positive for the chapter since they would then lose numbers. Thanks!

This would have definitely been set by their national. Panhel is not permitted to prevent sororities from taking pledges - it's a freedom of association issue. The most they can do is disallow them from participating in formal rush since FR is run by Panhellenic. The sorority can still invite women to join through open rush parties they hold on their own or other ways.

As far as the underground issue, I don't think you have to go so far as to have a silence period, but the fraternities' and sororities' HQs should know that 1st semester freshmen aren't allowed to pledge and therefore the big classes will be in the spring, not the fall. The sororities and fraternities are still allowed to pledge sophomores and up in the fall so not allowing them to hold rush activities would not be fair.

(adpiucf - this is a school where it's definitely not "freshmen only" pledging.)

[DSTCHAOS]

For quality assurance purposes there's typically a network of administrators and Greek advisors, usually listserves of some sort, in which you can ask these types of questions.

[GVSU_SigPi_Gea]

The greek life advisor should be given a roster in the beginning of the semester, and its easy to request information from national headquarters to check on recruitment numbers (or discrepancies), or you can get official roster numbers from IFC and compare it to what was sent to the greek advisor/national headquarters.

[valmypal]

Thanks everyone for your help!

[Kevin]

val,

Careful not to overplay your hand there. Know which organizations you're dealing with and know how they'll react to your policies. If you're at a public school, a heavy handed greek advisor can mean bad things for the school.

Perhaps, if organizations are not honoring the deferred rush system, they don't see its value? Rather than simply punishing those which do not comply, consider the goal of the policy -- to promote better adjustment to campus life, to keep grades up, etc.

Perhaps there is middle ground to be found? Perhaps do away with deferred rush so long as organizations' pledge classes maintain a certain GPA? Perhaps then, there will be an incentive for these organizations to do what they can do best -- give these new kids a social network to support them while adjusting to campus life.

Dealing with fraternities is going to be different than dealing with sororities. The NIC-type organizations are much more 'hands off' when it comes to this type of thing.