Anonymity?

[KappaKittyCat]

I'm from a small, residential campus with unhoused sororities. Formal Recruitment is deferred until Winter Term of freshman year. This means that Rho Chis (which we just call Recruitment Counselors or RCs) have to be anonymous for the entirety of Fall Term as well as the first two weeks of Winter Term. It's a very big sacrifice, obviously. In the past few years we've had lots of trouble with RCs' blowing their cover by hanging out with their sisters in public all the time. We've had even more trouble finding women who are willing to go undercover and be RCs in the first place. The RCs do nothing to bond as a sisterhood; they're all just XYZs in disguise.

This year we have fabulous RCs from all three chapters who are doing a great job keeping freshman women turned on to the possibilities of Greek life. They've even started mingling and hanging out as an RC sisterhood. Just about all of them are rooming with another person from their own sorority, but inter-chapter rooming isn't too rare at this school, so that's acceptable. However, these ladies are fast growing frustrated with the fact that they can only hang out with their roomies and not with anybody else.

What brought the situation to a head was the fact that Kappa is having a retreat this weekend up at the school's lodge in Door County (the thumb of Wisconsin). The lodge sleeps 70 and my chapter is small, so we're not the only ones going up this weekend; we'll be joined by the flute studio and the cast of the fall musical. Both groups include freshman women, so our RCs assumed that they could not come along because they'd blow their cover. The other two chapters are going up on the same weekend about a month from now. They are considerably larger and together fill up the entire lodge, so there will be no freshman women there and their RCs can go along. Our RCs were very disappointed that they could not come, but the chapter got them gift certificates for dinner out together, etc., so they could have a good time together while we were gone. They were pragmatic about it and figured that it was all part of the sacrifice.

Panhel got wind of this and decided that the situation was unfair all around. If one group's RCs couldn't go, then none of them should be able to go. Of course all the other RCs pitched a fit about this. So they had their meeting last night and decided to change the requirements for anonymity. RCs may not have any visible signs of affiliation and they may not tell women to which organization they belong, but they may hang out with their sisters in public during Fall Term and each may go on her chapter's retreat. Once Winter Term starts, they must be 100% disaffilliated, not hanging out with any other Greek women, until Formal Recruitment is over. They did this to make it easier on the RCs and because they think that it will increase the number of women volunteering for the job.

I have very mixed feelings on this. On the one hand, it's much easier on the RCs, and of course I'm happy that ours get to come along this weekend. But on the other hand, in the span of 24 hours most of the freshmen have figured out the RCs' affiliations. Furthermore, this opens the door for a whole style of dirty rushing that we've never had to deal with on this campus. I think that in the end this could wind up seriously compromising the Formal Recruitment process.

Ideally, of course, we'd have a Fall Term Formal Recruitment and the RCs would only have to be anonymous for the first two weeks of school. However, that's not going to happen on this campus. I can't really do anything about the situation because I'm not on Panhel. (Nor will my chapter let me near it; I'm far too radical and I'd do nothing but make waves. Excuse me for thinking that the NPC recommendations should be followed!) Our Greek Advisor is a Greek herself, but she's rather timid. She is working to move us into compliance with NPC regulations and recommendations, but she's all for doing it slowly; meanwhile, chapters are suffering because of it. Our RCs weren't even anonymous in the first place until a few years ago and I'm afraid that this is nothing but one gigantic step backwards.

So what do you all think? Is there anything that I might do? Is the subject even worth broaching in Chapter or with Panhel? It sounds like it's pretty much a done deal already. I'm not going to go over anyone's head, but what would NPC say about this? I'm still not sure how to react, and I'd like some feedback.

*Edited with corrections and clarifications*

KappaStarGirl has informed me that RCs were anonymous until 1998-99, when they weren't for a year. The next year they became anonymous again and have been since. In 1998-99 they decided not to be anonymous. The 1999-2000 group decided to be anonymous, and then NPC found out about this and for 2000-2001 said that they had to be anonymous, whether they wanted to or not. It used to be that Panhellenic Exec was always anonymous, but as of 2001-2002 they are no longer disaffiliated. Because they have less interaction with PNMs, it doesn't matter as much whether they're affiliated or not. Our bylaws state that they should "Show pride in membership but behave in an impartial manner."

We are on trimesters. Each term is ten weeks of classes and one of exams. So the RCs are anonymous for the first 13 weeks of school and affiliated for the final 20. In reality it's less than half the year, but it's still a long time.

NPC has offered to send a consulting team if we'll request one. They even offered to pay for it because our Panhel has no money. But the other two organizations are stalling, and ours isn't really even pushing for it. This is just the latest in a series of issues, and I think they need to get in here ASAP and fix this crap.

The administration hath decreed that we shall have a deferred recruitment. There's no getting around that, regardless of what NPC/NIC recommend or what the individual chapters desire.