And I had yet
another school related dream last night ...
I had enrolled in a 4-year university. Early in my freshman year, I had pledged and been initiated into AEPhi. But, over the course of my freshman year, I realized the school was not right for me, so I transferred to a different 4-year university. The school I transferred to also had a chapter of AEPhi, plus chapters of nine other NPC sororities. (Neither school resembled my real life alma mater in any way.)
Here's the twist: NPC had rescinded, or perhaps never enacted in the first place, the rule that, once initiated into an NPC sorority, you can never join another. So it was not uncommon for transfers who had been initiated into a sorority at their original school to rush at their new school.
Transfers had three options:
- Do nothing and just become an alumna of the original NPC sorority they'd initiated into.
- Affiliate with the chapter of their sorority at their new school as a transfer, if one existed. (The chapter was not allowed to refuse to let the new transfer affiliate. The new transfer would be counted in total, but if the chapter were already at/over total, the transfer could still affiliate.)
- Go through formal recruitment. (If the transfer's original sorority were represented at the new school, that chapter would be required to accord her the standard privileges extended to legacies.)
If the transfer went through FR, there were three possible outcomes.
- If the sorority she'd been initiated into had a chapter at her new school, she could go all the way through rush, and get a bid from the local chapter of her same sorority. She would be counted in quota. She would not be required to re-complete the new member program, but she'd be considered a part of that NM class and would be encouraged to bond with them.
- Whether or not the sorority she'd been initiated into had a chapter at her new school, she could rush and get a bid from a different sorority. She would then become an alumna of her original sorority (in good standing) and a new member of her new sorority. She'd go through the NM process and be initiated into the new sorority like any other NM.
- Or she might not receive a bid through FR. In that case, if the sorority she'd been initiated into at her old school had a chapter at her new school, she could still exercise her right to affiliate as a transfer.
Presented with these choices, I'd decided to rush, on the grounds that the AEPhi chapter at my new school might not be the best fit for me, or I for it. However, I fell in love with the local chapter. I'd had a full schedule throughout, and AEPhi kept bringing me back. I also made friends with 4 or 5 members of my rush group, all of whom also loved AEPhi.
The dream took place on the morning of pref day. All PNMs gathered in a large room, and their rho chis called them one by one into smaller rooms off the big room, and informed them of their pref party schedule. As it happened, I was one of the last ones called. My other friends each got their invites and came out beaming, ecstatic that they'd been invited back to AEPhi. Most of them had also been invited to another chapter, but AEPhi was their first choice. I was really looking forward to becoming sisters with some, if not all, of my new friends.
We sat around chatting, until my name was called. I walked into the room, excited because I fully believed I'd get an invite to AEPhi and perhaps another chapter ... And there was the Greek Life advisor, who told me that I had not received any pref invites.
I left the building very quickly, went back to my dorm, went on a crying jag, spent some quality time with my friends Ben and Jerry (isn't dream ice cream the best - all of the taste in the dream, and none of the weight gain in real life
), thought over my options, and then called my rho chi and told her I wanted to exercise my right to affiliate as a transfer, as I had liked the sisters and they had seemed to like me. She told me that she would notify the chapter, and that I was not to attend pref, but that I should come to the chapter's bid day party, where I would be officially welcomed as a transfer affiliate.
Then, somehow, I learned that there was a standard practice at this school, because of the way the NPC rules had been written. If a PNM had been initiated into sorority X, and then transferred to this school where sorority X was represented, the chapter would decide whether the PNM was a good fit. If so, they would invite her back to indicate their interest, but cut her just before pref. The other nine chapters would assume that the transfer would want to affiliate with X as a transfer, so they wouldn't invite her to pref unless they totally LURRRRVED her. So it was common for such transfers to be cut across the board before pref and then affiliate with the local chapter as a transfer. Why? Well... if the PNM from sorority X had been invited to pref, she would have had to be placed on X's first bid list (per legacy policy), and most likely she would match, thus being counted in quota. So if quota were 25, X could get the transfer plus 24 "normal" PNMs to meet quota. But if the PNM were cut, X could meet quota with 25 "normal" PNMs, PLUS get the transfer, thus getting effectively 26 "new members".
Weird.........
. The dorm was set up in suites (as my undergrad dorm was) and all grad students got huge singles while all undergrads got doubles or worse.
Hybrid Mode
