Indiana University Recruitment

baygirl88 · #1 05-23-2009, 05:51 PM

Thanks for the links, KSUviolet! It seems like IU is pretty much what I've heard it was - super competitive. Sounds like keeping an open mind is a good idea. My sister assumes that girls she's lost touch with or wasn't friends with in high school that are in sororities now at IU will cut her automatically from their chapters, so she has been ignoring offers from family friends to write her recs. Maybe some of this advice on here will show her the light! All I can say is that I'm glad it's not me rushing @ IU! It sounds like quite the emotional rollercoaster. =/

IUGreekGirl · #2 05-25-2009, 10:05 PM

Sorry I've been MIA for so long.
There are three girls in my pledge class who were sophomores when we got bids. It isn't impossible at all. But with so many girls rushing, the year you are in school is an easy reason to be cut.

Tell your friend to for sure rush. But as with all PNMs- one of the best pieces of advice overall is to not ever get set on a certain house, or to get set on being Greek at all. Plus IU has so much going on all the time that you can still have a rewarding college experience as a GDI.

honeychile · #3 05-29-2009, 11:06 PM

I know that I'm terribly late to this thread, but 150 bidless women, after being asked to Prefs? NPC has put together too many safeguards to keep this from happening to allow this to be a more than one year statistic?

Are the chapters using the Release numbers? Has suiciding been penalized? Having over a hundred women upset because they didn't get a bid to one of twenty (nineteen?) sororities is about 100 too many, IMHO. Placing only 52% of the women who sign up for Recruitment is a nasty percentage, and just as the campus Panhellenic was somewhat forced into accepting NPC "suggestions", there needs to be a meeting of the minds at IU.

Unless, of course, they start putting in several more sets of bunk beds or sleeping porches into each house.

ASUADPi · #4 05-30-2009, 12:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by honeychile

I know that I'm terribly late to this thread, but 150 bidless women, after being asked to Prefs? NPC has put together too many safeguards to keep this from happening to allow this to be a more than one year statistic?

Are the chapters using the Release numbers? Has suiciding been penalized? Having over a hundred women upset because they didn't get a bid to one of twenty (nineteen?) sororities is about 100 too many, IMHO. Placing only 52% of the women who sign up for Recruitment is a nasty percentage, and just as the campus Panhellenic was somewhat forced into accepting NPC "suggestions", there needs to be a meeting of the minds at IU.

Unless, of course, they start putting in several more sets of bunk beds or sleeping porches into each house.

Isn't it because IU only lets chapters bid what they can actually house?

I personally find this an asinine rule, mainly because (not that I've been to IU or seen the houses) unless all houses have the same number of beds, then it truly wouldn't be "fair" on chapter size. It just seems that if one chapter has a house that can bed 100 women and another can only bed 30, obviously the one that can only bed 30 is at a disadvantage with the chapter that can bed 100.

Are most of the houses at IU around the same size when it comes to "beds"? Do most of the houses just have sleeping porches?

Now, I know that chapter sizes vary per campuses, but at least the ones here in AZ have the set total and the set quota. (Again, I also understand that chapters can be above total, although the whole going over total with quota confuses me, but that is a whole other thread).

IUGreekGirl · #5 05-30-2009, 01:21 AM

Again, IU works on bed quota. It's a terrible way of doing things, we know this. But we can't change it.
But small houses are actually at an advantage because it makes it more competitive to get a bed spot.

Every house is different sized. Most have cold dorms (sleeping porches) but you can still have only so many desks/closets in the day rooms.

FSUZeta · #6 05-30-2009, 08:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IUGreekGirl

Again, IU works on bed quota. It's a terrible way of doing things, we know this. But we can't change it.
But small houses are actually at an advantage because it makes it more competitive to get a bed spot.

Every house is different sized. Most have cold dorms (sleeping porches) but you can still have only so many desks/closets in the day rooms.

who can't change it? panhellenic? the sororities? the administration?

has it ever been suggested that it change or does everyone just assume that since that is the way it has been since the ice age, that changes aren't allowed?

sassygal · #7 05-31-2009, 02:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FSUZeta

who can't change it? panhellenic? the sororities? the administration?

has it ever been suggested that it change or does everyone just assume that since that is the way it has been since the ice age, that changes aren't allowed?

I would think NPC would be putting loads of pressure on the PC at IU to make some changes. I'm not sure why the Greeks would want a bunch of disgruntled women on campus. Lots of houses across the country have ways to determine who gets to live in a house. I'm sure each National group has many different ways they could be determine either by a combination of things or specific things. GPA, Year in School, How active you are in the house, community service ect.. If it is such a big part of IU greek life you would have a fair and equal way to determine who lives in and go to a fairer recruitment system. Just because something has always been done one way doesn't mean it is the right way or a good way to do things. Just putting my two cents in

IUGreekGirl · #8 05-31-2009, 03:30 PM

I guess from my stand point as a collegiate greek, I want to live in with my sisters. You're so much more connected to the chapter.

The point of living together is to foster a welcoming and supporting community. That is completely embodied in living in the house. To have a "quasi-competition" (even if it is fair) would bait people against each other. I would be very resentful if I had a bad semester and then wasn't "qualified" enough to live with my sisters.

And again, we are wary of dumping the bed quota system because we don't want our houses to get any bigger, they're already huge. If your chapter had 200 members you wouldn't know the whole house.

33girl · #9 05-30-2009, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IUGreekGirl

Again, IU works on bed quota. It's a terrible way of doing things, we know this. But we can't change it.
But small houses are actually at an advantage because it makes it more competitive to get a bed spot.

Every house is different sized. Most have cold dorms (sleeping porches) but you can still have only so many desks/closets in the day rooms.

Okay, here's a (ridiculously easy) solution.

Since there is no quota changing from day to day - why don't the chapters just come out and say how many openings they have at the beginning of rush? It would help the rushees to grasp how competitive things actually are. I mean when people get rejected by Harvard they usually don't get all bitter and say they hate Harvard, because they know it's supercompetitive and there are only so many spots open. I wouldn't be surprised if there are women who've heard about rush at other schools from their moms or friends who don't really fully understand the whole "bed quota" concept, even if they have been told about it and even when they're in the midst of it.

And it wouldn't ruin anyone's prestige to say what the different numbers are, since the houses are all different sizes.

Is there a lot of decent off campus housing surrounding the campus, or is it really that a big part of the reason women are rushing is to have a nice place to live?

IUGreekGirl · #10 05-30-2009, 05:04 PM

Our Rho Gams tell us the first day that it's difficult. Everyone knows that the odds are against you. But I think releasing numbers would discourage PNMs from liking a house that has less spots open. We want you to list houses on your list that you love, not ones you think you have a statistic probability of getting into.

Just a note. A lot of our chapters are pretty big already. The bigger chapters can sleep close to 100 girls in the house and still have seniors that live out. If we let more people in our chapters a chapter could have so many girls you wouldn't know all your sister.

Lastly, there are so many of good places to live off campus. That is 100% not an issue on this campus.

carnation · #11 05-30-2009, 09:21 AM

It can be changed. They had bed rush at Arkansas when I was there and the numbers were beginning to be so big that over half the rushees went bidless: good, strong women who would have been such an asset to us, many of whom became anti-Greek in their pain.

Who changed it? In large part, the alums. They could see all the valuable women being drained from the system because of the foolish insistence that everyone live in. Did the Greeks hate the change? If they did, it didn't last long; a couple of years later, no one could believe how it used to be done.

Would I have suppported the change had I been an alum at the time? Are you kidding--with nine daughters, of course I would have! There is no need to become so horribly exclusive that you shoot yourself in the foot by turning away good women and creating enemies on top of that.

BadCat25 · #12 05-30-2009, 09:46 AM

I also think it needs a big push from the university administration which apparently ignores the problem.

kchaptergphib · #13 05-30-2009, 04:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by carnation

It can be changed. They had bed rush at Arkansas when I was there and the numbers were beginning to be so big that over half the rushees went bidless: good, strong women who would have been such an asset to us, many of whom became anti-Greek in their pain.

Who changed it? In large part, the alums. They could see all the valuable women being drained from the system because of the foolish insistence that everyone live in. Did the Greeks hate the change? If they did, it didn't last long; a couple of years later, no one could believe how it used to be done.

Would I have suppported the change had I been an alum at the time? Are you kidding--with nine daughters, of course I would have! There is no need to become so horribly exclusive that you shoot yourself in the foot by turning away good women and creating enemies on top of that.

Carnation, darling, I think you need to write letters to the Alumnae Advisors for the chapters at IU!