Full Frills Recruitment

[LionTamer]

I think I've told this story, but we had a "semi-frills" rush in the 80s, meaning that the actual dollars spent were limited, but people were allowed to receive token gifts (a flower, a hand-made booklet, etc) and we were allowed to go nuts with the decorating as long as it was done with very little money.

The thing was, at the last pref party, you could SEE where the girls had been by the "token" gifts they were carrying.

Our sorority was the "safety" sorority for a lot of girls - we lost a lot of our rush crushes to the Chi O's and Thetas, who were considered "top tier". It was the very last preference party of what is one of the longest rushes in the country (at least in the number of parties - we had either 16 or 19 sororities at the time and 4 rounds of parties, no photos and no resumes). I was last-minute co-rush chairman (the elected chair dropped out of school for the term) and also the only calligrapher, so I was beyond exhausted and cranky. The girl sitting across from me was cute as a button, sitting ramrod straight, poised and perfect. (We, on the other hand were known as the more relaxed "fun" girls). She was clutching a book whose cover I couldn't see, and a yellow carnation tied up with Chi O yellow-and-white ribbons.

"I am SO torn about which sorority to choose."

I looked her in the eyes, shook my head, and said, sarcastically "Don't kid yourself. You know exactly where you want to go."

Later, I felt bad for having been so rude to her, but it had been a LONG rush.

On bid day, this same person came running into the suite (each sorority went out and collected it's PNMs, rather than have a big campus get-together like they do now). She ran right up to me, and gave me a big hug.

"I honestly didn't know what I was going to do until you said 'You know exactly where you want to go'!!!!! I wanted to go ASA but my friends were telling me to go ChiO. Thank you so much!!!"

Okay then.

But she did become our President, so there's that.