"Positive Panhellenic Contact" Implemented at Washington - St. Louis

[DGTess]

Originally Posted by skylark

Our college panhellenic started out with this policy. I agree that this is more beneficial to panhellenic as a whole since it allows for more opportunities for interaction... but it is a slippery slope because no one can monitor private conversations to make sure dirty rushing isn't going on. Every year we hear stories about how one group told girls not to do formal recruitment because the group would just COB the girls afterwards (our chapter total is WAY too high) or else the girls would make up things about other groups' policies and tell the PNMs.

I guess it is a good policy in theory, but it sure opens an unrestricted door for women who don't care about the fact that panhellenic wants them to talk up panhellenic rather than talk up their own group and talk down the others.

Would you even want a rushee whose integrity allows her to put any stock in this type of talk?

I hope you really didn't mean you want to monitor private conversations. And listening to stories about what might have been said by someone else isn't really giving the other party a chance, is it? It's more like condemning based on gossip.

[skylark]

Originally Posted by DGTess

I hope you really didn't mean you want to monitor private conversations. And listening to stories about what might have been said by someone else isn't really giving the other party a chance, is it? It's more like condemning based on gossip.

First, I didn't say I'd want to monitor private conversations -- I said it was impossible so if you allow conversations, there is no way to know that the conversations are pro-panhellenic. That is the risk you take. Trust me, I'm not trying to advocate that we try to start monitoring conversations.

And as far as hearing stories and believing them... sure they might not be true, or they might. When a PNM comes up to you and says "someone from XYZ said that your sorority doesn't allow you to have events with fraternities," I tend to wonder why a PNM would make up such a thing. And when PNMs come to parties saying "my friend said she wasn't coming to recruitment because she was told that you can COB after formal recruitment, is that true?" in the context of a year where quota was 3 (yes, I'm not joking) and then the organization in question COBed triple that after formal was over in the span of less than a week.

Sure it is gossip, but you shouldn't assume that because it is gossip it is false and I'm just smoking crack or something. When stuff happens year after year, you tend to start believing its not just typical exaggeration at work. While I don't believe in "condemnation" based on gossip, it is hard to ignore this stuff when it is persistent and comes from sources that would be unlikely to make it up.