Bama Sorority Recruitment 2010

[Beaumom]

Just a FYI for future Alabama rushees....Panhellinic Council has really restricted contact with PNMs. New guidelines have been in place and members may no longer contact, facebook or have PNMs spend the night.

Perhaps we can get a bit more detail from those in the know.

But my daughter who is a sophomore said the new rules were going to be strictly enforced.

Just thought PNMs may be interested since many forum members have suggested visits to current sorority members!

[Beaumom]

Just wondering if anyone heard where Mskrabs daughter ended up?

[Zillini]

Nutshell of Rule changes passed last week:

• PNMs are no longer allowed to stay with any active overnight. Younger sisters of actives may visit overnight, however this must be registered.
• No recruitment contact may be made to any PNM until after University finals are complete in fall.
• All written communication must include a link to the Alabama Panhellenic website where they can find the visitation contract and Recruitment Rules.
• In spring there will be specific weekends when recruitment activities are allowed in Tuscaloosa for any/all PNMs. An event must be held in an alumna's home, restaurant, or other public place, and not in any active's residence. They must end by 8pm on Friday/Saturday and 3pm on Sunday.
• Other hometown events will not be limited in number, however only local PNMs may be invited. Meaning only Birmingham PNMs may attend an event in Birmingham, etc.

[shirley1929]

Originally Posted by Zillini

Nutshell of Rule changes passed last week:

• PNMs are no longer allowed to stay with any active overnight. Younger sisters of actives may visit overnight, however this must be registered.
• No recruitment contact may be made to any PNM until after University finals are complete in fall.
• All written communication must include a link to the Alabama Panhellenic website where they can find the visitation contract and Recruitment Rules.
• In spring there will be specific weekends when recruitment activities are allowed in Tuscaloosa for any/all PNMs. An event must be held in an alumna's home, restaurant, or other public place, and not in any active's residence. They must end by 8pm on Friday/Saturday and 3pm on Sunday.
• Other hometown events will not be limited in number, however only local PNMs may be invited. Meaning only Birmingham PNMs may attend an event in Birmingham, etc.

So...how do seniors in HS visit Alabama? In the past, they've gone to stay with someone so they can get a feel of dorm life and classes. Do they now have to stay in hotels? Seems crazy to me...

[Zillini]

The liability has just gotten too great for the individual members, the chapters, Panhellenic, and the University. It's not just underaged drinking that can occur when HS students visit campus overnight, although that is a significant part of the problem. But if anything bad happened to a PNM (even a random car accident), the liability can fall on everyone since her stay could legally be considered a sorority/Panhellenic/University "sanctioned" recruitment event.

In addition, last year the City has passed a curfew ordinance for those who are under 18 that goes into effect this coming spring. That's something all HS students who plan on visiting campus without their parents need to be aware of. Legal troubles are not something anyone wants to deal with.

[Low C Sharp]

So...how do seniors in HS visit Alabama? In the past, they've gone to stay with someone so they can get a feel of dorm life and classes. Do they now have to stay in hotels?

According to those rules, they can still stay in the dorms with student hosts and get a feel for the university...the hosts just can't be sorority members. The majority of undergrads at Alabama are not Greek.
________
My green heaven ministry milbre

[AGDee]

The new curfew laws could have a significant impact on the actual college students who don't turn 18 until after the fall term begins too, won't it? Do you know the details of that?

[dgdramadawg]

Originally Posted by Zillini

[*]Other hometown events will not be limited in number, however only local PNMs may be invited. Meaning only Birmingham PNMs may attend an event in Birmingham, etc.[/LIST]

Couldn't this significantly impact out-of-state PNMs for whom there are not hometown events? My sister was invited to events for several houses prior to going through recruitment at Bama, and almost all were somewhere in Alabama.

(For explanation's sake, we are not from Alabama.)

[AnchorAlumna]

The hometown events are in hometowns. That said, there may very well be an Atlanta event in Atlanta.

I'm wondering if...say...grandma lives in Eufaula, so granddaughter who actually lives in Dothan is invited to the Eufaula one.

[shirley1929]

Originally Posted by Zillini

The liability has just gotten too great for the individual members, the chapters, Panhellenic, and the University. It's not just underaged drinking that can occur when HS students visit campus overnight, although that is a significant part of the problem. But if anything bad happened to a PNM (even a random car accident), the liability can fall on everyone since her stay could legally be considered a sorority/Panhellenic/University "sanctioned" recruitment event.

Originally Posted by Low C Sharp

According to those rules, they can still stay in the dorms with student hosts and get a feel for the university...the hosts just can't be sorority members. The majority of undergrads at Alabama are not Greek.

Soo...they're just passing along the liability to the non-sorority members? I still say this makes no sense. I think it's less of a "liability issue" and more of a "OMG she's dirty-rushing" issue. But Panhellenic is calling it a "liability issue" just to save face. What's to say that Jane Highschooler stays with random-person-she-doesn't-know-who-isn't-in-a-sorority and spends all her time with Suzy Sorority Girl?

Originally Posted by dgdramadawg

Couldn't this significantly impact out-of-state PNMs for whom there are not hometown events?

This is more to my point. Alabama is seeing TONS more OOS kids (esp. from Texas where no such events take place) and this will definitely be a negative impact for them.

<back to lurkdom>

[Titchou]

Go back to this bullet point in Zillini's post:

"In spring there will be specific weekends when recruitment activities are allowed in Tuscaloosa for any/all PNMs. An event must be held in an alumna's home, restaurant, or other public place, and not in any active's residence. They must end by 8pm on Friday/Saturday and 3pm on Sunday."

There will still be events in Tuscaloosa where the PNMs can meet the sorority women. Instead of focusing on the negatives, a focus on what they can do is more important.

[shirley1929]

Originally Posted by Titchou

Go back to this bullet point in Zillini's post:

"In spring there will be specific weekends when recruitment activities are allowed in Tuscaloosa for any/all PNMs. An event must be held in an alumna's home, restaurant, or other public place, and not in any active's residence. They must end by 8pm on Friday/Saturday and 3pm on Sunday."

There will still be events in Tuscaloosa where the PNMs can meet the sorority women. Instead of focusing on the negatives, a focus on what they can do is more important.

<crap...hates coming back out of lurkdom>

But it's the difference between a party of 500 people vs. 50 people when you're talking about a town alum gathering vs. a weekend of PNM's from everywhere. I'm not trying to be a whiner (don't have college aged kids and really don't care about Bama specifically) but it does seem to perpetuate the notion that in-staters have built-in advantages and more to harm the out-of-staters. Am I crazy? If I am, I'll stay away...

<backing away again>

[Zillini]

Shirley, you bring up some valid points of which I don't have the answers to. I will ask Greek Affairs and/or Panhellenic about out-of-state PNMs and teas because nobody wants to inhibit their chances. As you so rightly point out, the percentage of OOS students and subsequently PNMs continues to grow.

However I do know part of the reason for the hometown limitations on who is invited is that for many PNMs it was just way out of hand in regards to time and money. Let's say XYZ chapter held teas in Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, Huntsville, Montgomery, Mobile, and Atlanta. Some PNMs would travel to every tea in order to get as much "face time" with the XYZs as possible. Some even travel from out of state for multiple events. The cost of travel, attire (because Heaven forbid you are seen in the same dress twice ), and just the time involved was way too much.

[shirley1929]

Thanks Zillini, I completely get the reasons behind the rules. I just think that they're cutting off their noses to spite their faces, I guess. As with anything, there are ways around those rules ("staying" with one person and "playing" with another as I mentioned) and it will likely only cause more people to turn in their competition to Panhellenic. We all know that just gets ugly for very little benefit!

I also know that if I were looking at Bama, LSU and Ole Miss for school, it wouldn't be a fair playing field in terms of a senior year visit.

Can't we all just get along!??

[Bamababe]

I feel like most of the rules were explained well yesterday by Zillini, but for those of you talking about OOS disadvantage, I actually think that this helps to level the playing field. The fall semester is a period of no contact (similar to the May-rush no contact period) so sorority women are not allowed to hang out with the PNMs who come down on gamedays. Therefore, the situation of PNM staying with non-sorority member but hanging out with sorority member all night should NOT be happening. Basically, Suzie PNM from Birmingham with season tickets no longer has that stay-every-weekend advantage over Jane PNM from Virginia who doesn't decide she wants to go to Alabama until November.

I do feel bad for the HS seniors who were looking forward to coming down gameday weekends and staying the night (I know that I loved to do that my senior year) but unfortunately, as Zillini said, certain things have gotten out of control. In addition, this gives the freshmen the luxury of focusing on getting acquainted with school, their new sisters, etc., (as well as actually meeting the fraternity boys at parties, rather than spending the whole time catering to a group of HS seniors!) before being thrown straight back into the chaos of the next rush season.

Also, the curfew on minors: It's been mentioned that the curfew does not apply to university students. I have yet to see this in writing, but have told that presenting an ACT card to prove student status works for the 17 & 18 year old students?

*note* If I am wrong about any of this, PLEASE feel free to correct me. This is just my understanding currently, and I could have always misread or misinterpreted.