Texas A&M: To rush or not to rush?

[33girl]

Originally Posted by Titchou

First of all, you can't spit in Texas and not hit an alum of all the groups arA & M. So getting recs in Texas is not that difficult. Second, there are always groups who can't take a segment of the PNMs who are allowed to participate(GPA - remember?).

Do you purposely take the negative side just to stir things up or do you just see the glass half empty? Maybe you just like to play devil's advocate. At least you're consistent.

I'm consistently negative? Seriously?? I hope it works, it just sounds like some things weren't thought through and that's not fair to the rushees or the chapters or the alumnae who spend their time writing recs.

ETA: I completely agree with carnation's post.

[CMDelta]

I just heard from our local panhellenic president that A&M has revised their bylaws or policies to clear up any confusion on whether BlinnTeam students are considered fully part of A&M's student body. It appears A&M fully supports this change to allow Blinn girls to rush and it was due, in part, from the sororities requesting it since so many girls were having to wait until sophomore year to go through recruitment. However, the sororities will know which girls are A&M freshman and which are Blinn so how each sorority chooses to handle it during voting (and if Blinn students will have heavier cuts) remains to be seen.

[SWTXBelle]

Here's some of an e-mail I received clarifying everything:
This morning I received a note from a confused mom. This led me to email Texas A&M’s Panhellenic to ask some questions about Recruitment for Blinn Team students. That resulted in a conference call this afternoon with Melissa Williams, CPC Advisor/Risk Management Specialist, Office of Fraternity & Sorority Life, Department of Student Activities, Texas A&M University. (That’s a long title!) Jennifer Ginn joined me on the call, and we want to share a few highlights with you. Please feel free to pass along to your alumnae as you wish, and let us know if you have additional questions about this.



First, to ensure we are all on the same page, I want to highlight this statement from NPC’s (thesororitylife.com) website: “To join a sorority, you must be a fully matriculated undergraduate student, as defined by the college or university you attend.”



In our conference call, we learned the following from Melissa:

·A&M Blinn Team (BT) students, although still currently called part-time students on the Blinn Team website, are now defined as “fully matriculated” by A&M’s Office of Fraternity & Sorority Life.

·A&M’s bylaws weren’t in accordance with NPC so A&M made changes to their bylaws to comply with NPC requirements. Including the “fully matriculated” language was one of the changes.

·The NPC Area Advisor, Donna, is okay with A&M’s BT recruitment plans. Julie Johnson of NPC gave her blessing as well.

·Melissa said Blinn Team program will show on a student’s permanent ICS record, so sororities will know who is in the program.

·NPC has asked A&M to identify BT women throughout the process so they will be identified.

·Everyone will visit all houses for first round; then they will be released as normal after that.

·According to Melissa, 250 sophomores went through recruitment last year and 1/3 were from Blinn Team. One of their goals is to get more freshmen to go through recruitment. Melissa hopes to be able to gauge success toward meeting this goal by year 2 of adding Blinn Team to recruitment.

·The Blinn Team program has about 250 new freshmen students each year, and Melissa expect about 50 to go through recruitment this year.

·Melissa noted that A&M is only the third campus to navigate through a program like this. (I presume that makes UT the second. Wonder who the first was?)

I hope this information is helpful. Please let me know if you hear any other information regarding this program from your respective sororities.