Dirty Rushing and Consequences

[NutBrnHair]

There is this insane example from Univ. of Kansas:

The historic Chi Omega house was damaged in the spring when a driver crashed into the side of the house.

Here is the update that was posted this fall in the Chi Omega forum:

An update on this story. Their house indeed is not finished for recruitment, and over that large area that covered the damage with a large hanging sign they had printed. The only problem is that the text they had printed to be put on the sign said something along the lines of:

"We are "rushing" to repair our historical chapter house."

Panhellenic fined them for using the word "rushing" on the outside of their house, and they were forced to cover up the sign, and change the wording to, "We are working to repair our historical chapter house."

[33girl]

Originally Posted by Leslie Anne

How would it allow a chapter to hold whatever kind of parties they want? I'm not trying to be argumentative. I honestly just don't get it. Aren't there rules for COB that would still apply?

The rules about how much money you can spend, how many balloons, what you can wear, etc etc are for formal rush only. They aren't set by the individual groups, they're set by Panhellenic.

If a sorority does nothing but COB, they can have whatever kind of parties they want, spend as much as they want, etc - there are no rules when it comes to COB.

Think of participating in formal rush as being a store in a mall - you have certain signage requirements, hours you go by, etc etc. When you move out of the mall, if you want to have a 10 foot sign and stay open 24/7, you can.

[skylark]

Originally Posted by acuisla

Getting beyond the whole concept that they spent money to have stuff printed that says "rush" on it in this day and age, the fact that the GA talked to the other groups on campus recommending this practice to them just appalled me!!! Of course there was nothing done about this.

So what do you do when the GA is even letting stuff happen???

The chapter I advise runs into similar GA problems ... the GA was in a local sorority in college and so the NPCs often are in the position of educating the GA as if she were non-greek. If education doesn't work and the GA doesn't think that she or he is doing anything wrong, then make sure all the members know that no GA or greek council or any other college official can take a panhellenic rule and throw it out the window for panhellenic groups. If ABC sorority violates a panhellenic rule, their HQ (and NPC) isn't going to give a crap that the local GA said it was okay. If the local GA said it was okay to haze, would that make it okay? Remind everyone of that (including the GA, if necessary) and if a rule is violated, address the issue with the national leadership of the offending group and your panhellenic delegate.

[33girl]

Or the GA can be a guy who just thinks the NPC rules are ridiculous.

It can be a hard line to walk - you want the women to follow NPC rules, but at the same time, if you piss the Greek advisor/host institution off, they can kick you off campus if they feel like it. One of our volunteers was upset at a GA that constantly used the word "pledge" instead of "new member" - what she didn't understand was that the campus was more locals than nationals, locals that had been there since early in the century, and we were the new kids on the block. The GA could have cared less about what NPC said was the correct term - we were in the minority.

You just have to pick your battles and see them through, rather than get upset at everything, if you're in a situation with that sort of GA. I mean, something like handing "rush XYZ" stuff out...it's that group's money to lose, and if everyone else doesn't do it, they're the ones who will look stupid.

[Leslie Anne]

Originally Posted by 33girl

If a sorority does nothing but COB, they can have whatever kind of parties they want, spend as much as they want, etc - there are no rules when it comes to COB.

Think of participating in formal rush as being a store in a mall - you have certain signage requirements, hours you go by, etc etc. When you move out of the mall, if you want to have a 10 foot sign and stay open 24/7, you can.

Thank you for explaining that. I had no idea. It makes perfect sense now.

[Thetagirl218]

I have seen dirty rushing take place at my campus, and as someone who actually follows the rules when it comes to Panhellenic recruitment, it always made me mad!

One of my friends was a double legacy of one sorority and was dirty rushed into another, and now she is unhappy with her decision of the sorority she chose.
For a long time, the Panhellenic council was not imposing fines upon sororities that took part in such activities. Now they are imposing fines, and I have seen recruitment at my school get better!

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by acuisla

Well, what it meant to a chapter I advised is that the NPC Area Rep *and* the release figure expert were calling me and the folks above me in the organization....and then my NPC Delegate called me....and all of them wanted to know why in the heck my chapter was cutting more women than the release figures said they were supposed to. And then there was the visit after recruitment....

Despite the fact that the chapter took quota +1 - the women happened to be really good recruiters and the chapter was consistently one of the "top 3" on campus, and so they could technically afford to be a little more picky.

That said, it was a calculated risk they ran, and I let them do it. But after the NPC backlash, I didn't let them do it again. Too much drama during a high-drama time of the year.

I don't understand why they were doing that. It sounds like they wanted to be sure their numbers "worked" and that chapter over-releasing threatened their statistics. Perhaps that's a bit cynical, but it wouldn't surprise me. My chapter "over-released" my senior year, and while they did not hit quota, they COB'd to it within a few weeks. We always love our COB girls anyway and if you can't take, for example, girls with low GPAs, why string them along?

[MaggieXi]

Originally Posted by violetpretty

I would have laughed in their faces if they said that to me. Isn't that one of the jobs of a Rho chi?

You would think! Granted, the sorority member who was giving beer to the rushee was a new member who had just joined in the fall and may have not been aware of ALL the rules for formal recruitment, but you would have thought that what/who Rho Chis were would have been covered in their recruitment practice.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by Zeta13Girl

I know at our campus the greek life advisor has discussed forbidding organizations that dirty rush from taking any new members at all for a year.

They aren't allowed to do this. The only way national orgs can be forbidden from taking pledges is if they are suspended or under discipline by their national headquarters.

The university can suspend them or discipline them, but if it's that severe of an offense the national HQ usually suspends them anyway, so the university's decision is moot. If the national HQ decides to continue to recognize the chapter, there's no way the university (especially a public one) can prevent students from joining.

If she tries this, she'll most likely be inviting a lawsuit from the sororities' headquarters.

[EtaEpsilove]

From experience at a university that was not SEC, but was very competitive (I went to Miami of Ohio), fines simply don't work.

There were many many chapters on campus that budgeted in fines to their recruitment budget. They knew in advance that they would probably get infractions, and just budgeted the appropriate amount of money. Additionally, our fines were like $25, so it really wasn't a huge deterrent.

IMHO, the social suspension works, and is something that chapters take very seriously. I'm not suggesting this for a chapter that turns a list in late. However, if there are chapters that consistently dirty rush, promise bids, the works, the only way for a chapter to take it seriously is if the punishment REALLY hurts. I think putting a chapter on social probation would be a big deal. I know at Miami, chapters laughed about the infraction fines, and they did NO good.

While I'm on it, I wish there were measures that could be taken against Rho Chis/Gamma Chis who completely violated procedure. When I was recruitment chair, during preference round we had higher than expected return rates. Due to this, our Panhel added on a extra party or two. Well, the Rho Chis weren't expecting this, and they didn't want to wait on the PNMs that were going to go to our additional or later parties. So, they had the girls fill out their preference cards and rank the chapters BEFORE THEY EVEN WENT TO OUR PREFERENCE CEREMONY!!! Then the PNMs were really confused about why they even were going to our party, since they'd already ranked us. They mentioned this to several of our actives, and when I found out I called our greek office. Both our current Panhel President and Greek Advisor told me there was nothing they could do about it, and I was making a big deal out of nothing . . . basically, they told me to get over it. I really wish there could have been consequences for those Rho Chis because that made me SOOOO mad.

But, long story short, at some campuses - fines do nothing; there need to be more substantial consequences.