Why in the world should a lady be expected to join a house she didn't want to?

[SAEalumnus]

A few points...

1) The Greek Community at large is supposed to be based on a mutual freedom of association between chapter and member. I believe that if a specific chapter and a specific PNM both desire mutual association, then that should be the only requirement for a bid to be extended. Think of it as a free market version of recruitment rather than the (over-)regulated market version typical of sorority recruitment (i.e. house totals, etc).

2) Trying to force, coerce, pressure, or otherwise push someone into membership in an organization they don't want to join is reprehensible. The whole point of joining is that you are making a life-time commitment to your organization of choice and to its members (your brothers/sisters). How can anyone expect a person to make a commitment of this magnitude to a group they never wanted to join in the first place?

3) The entire purpose of the rush/recruitment/insert_random_policitcally_correct_phrase_here period is for the PNM and the chapters to get to know as many (if not all) of the available options as they can. By the time bids are extended, a PNM should already have investigated his/her options and already know if alternate groups are acceptable to them or not.

... that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!