Should the system of Quota be changed? A look at the Nebraska system

[BigRedBeta]

So I did a search and didn't find what I was looking for except in the general threads explaining quota. But even that wasn't quite right.

So even though I understand the way that quota works for NPC recruitment, the reasoning behind it baffles me...

The main problem with quota from the stories I hear outside of Nebraska (sometimes here on GC) is that the big houses are at an advantage. Every girl wants to join the house with 160 members and not the one with 40. And there is so much pressure to reach quota that chapters are punished if they don't (from what I've heard)

This doesn't happen at Nebraska b/c of the way recruitment numbers are set up.
Every single chapter with a chapter house (13 out of 14 chapters) is at or near total. If total is 115, (hypothetically - I think it may be closer to 130) then those 13 chapters probably have an average size of 111 with houses ranging in size from 115 - 95 (not a big difference really). Again hypothetically.

This happens b/c no house is allowed to go over total, and "quota" is determined for each chapter individually. If there is a large number of girls going through recruitment, so that capping everyone at total would leave a large number of girls without bids, then total is increased. Most years, as far as I have been paying attention, the numbers have been fairly constant with a couple of huge classes of ladies a couple of years ago which raised total at the time. So in essence the system calculates total every year rather than quota, and that calculation determines how large each new member class is.

I think that this is a better system b/c it really rewards the chapters that do the best at keeping their girls involved for four years - they get the absolute cream of the crop of the girls they want (simply b/c they have fewer to take and have to "settle" for fewer of their lower ranked girls). For example the chapter that I believe to be hands down the best chapter on campus has closed their new member class first for years b/c they typically have a new member class 4-5 girls smaller than their next closest competitor (some years they have classes as small as 28 girls, while other chapters may have classes as large as 45 or 50). They have significantly fewer members drop in their third and fourth years, and their classes seemed to be much more unified rather than cliquish as I see in other houses. The girls tend to be friends with nearly everyone in their class as opposed to only several really close friends out of a large class.

The other advantage is that it keeps the chapters all at the same size so girls aren't focused on which house is biggest.

Of course if chapters are not at total after formal recruitment, then they may pursue candidates through COB, but this isn't a life or death mission for any housed chapter.

The only disadvantage I've heard raised by a sorority member was that her chapter lost out on a lot of inter/national awards b/c they seldom made quota which disqualified them outright for most of the big ones even though they are a great chapter.

Granted some chapters take girls they might otherwise not take if the other model was used, but (and maybe it isn't realized by the chapters) the way to avoid this is fairly clear (although not necessarily easy as it requires a culture change within the chapter).


Am I missing something as to why this sort of system isn't more widespread? Are there significant disadvantages to this set up compared to the standard, "everyone has the same quota, even if you go over total" model? Does that system have advantages I'm not seeing?