SPRING RECRUITMENT AT UGA

[Low C Sharp]

So, if they are raising total or allowing groups to give bids above total, but in some method that looked at chapter size rather than just a straight quota

Aren't there some campuses where chapters are allowed to COB up to average chapter size, rather than to total (thus, by definition, half the houses are allowed to COB)? Would 50% participation be enough to counter the stigma of COB at UGA?
________
Avandia side effects

[SigKapSweetie]

Originally Posted by Low C Sharp

Aren't there some campuses where chapters are allowed to COB up to average chapter size, rather than to total (thus, by definition, half the houses are allowed to COB)? Would 50% participation be enough to counter the stigma of COB at UGA?

That 50% participation would be if they were bidding to median chapter size, not averare. Very large or small groups will skew the mean, leaving either more or less than half the groups below average size.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by SigKapSweetie

That 50% participation would be if they were bidding to median chapter size, not averare. Very large or small groups will skew the mean, leaving either more or less than half the groups below average size.

According the most recent sizes published on the Greek Life page, the average chapter size was 185 in fall of 2007. There's not much point in even noting this because things have almost certainly changed in a year, but I think I counted five groups below 185, but I wasn't really careful.

http://www.uga.edu/panhellenic/forms/Rank.pdf

(Do you think the reason that they don't seem to be posting the grade report is that people like me link them publicly on sites about Greek Life to document chapter size? Should I remove the link?)

[UGA ZTA Lady]

Sorry to respond so late into this thread! From the posts I've read, most are correct in their assumptions, but I just wanted to clear up/reiterate a few things:

The reason UGA has decided to allow a Spring Recruitment this year is because for the first time, UGA has admitted incoming freshmen for the Spring semester. Since going through recruitment as a sophomore has its known disadvantages, UGA decided to level the playing field for PNM's admitted for Spring semester (as well as any girls who didn't go through recruitment or dropped out in the Fall).

For this reason, every sorority will be required to participate. There were very few sororities who didn't reach quota for the Fall, in fact. Nevertheless, there will be a set quota for each sorority that they will be required to meet to the best of their ability.

That being said, quota has yet to be set. The sororities won't know what quota is until all the numbers are in (registration ends Jan. 24th). Depending on the number of girls who choose to participate in recruitment, along with the number of open spots in the sorority, determines quota. So far the numbers being thrown around and expected is anywhere from around as little as 10 to as much as 25. No one will know for sure until all PNM's have registered.

Since this is the first time UGA has held Spring Recruitment, none of the sororities really know what to expect because it's set up quite differently from Fall recruitment.

Hope this helps! And wish all the UGA sororities and Spring PNM's good luck!

[UGAalum94]

Why not just go with a separate sophomore quota next year for the students who entered in January?

[APhiAnna]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

Why not just go with a separate sophomore quota next year for the students who entered in January?

Maybe to take the stigma away from COB. Think about it, 1) the chapters that will be taking higher quotas due to missing quota in formal recruitment will look like they are simply participating in recruitment, rather than COBing, and therefore take away the negative stigma about COBing chapters since it can be viewed negatively at a school like UGA. A PNMs spot may essentially be there because the chapter would have had to COB normally, but it allows the campus to think that Patty PNM got her bid through recruitment rather than COB.

2) The separate quotas will make it very hard to figure out if a group missed their quota or not...say ABC matches their quota of 10, and struggling chapter XYZ misses their quota of 25 but still gets 15 women. The stigma about them being a struggling chapter is gone because nobody else knew what their quota was and they, comparatively, still got a large class. Maybe they would have had to COB those 15 women anyways, and now they only have 10 spots open for COB. They can do a much more private COB or snap bid to fill those spots rather than advertising COB to get the 25 women they needed. I imagine that to get 25 women through COB they would have had to advertise a lot, and the UGA stigma would paint their chapter as undesirable, but now they can just secretly COB and add those girls to their quota from spring recruitment.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by APhiAnna

Maybe to take the stigma away from COB. Think about it, 1) the chapters that will be taking higher quotas due to missing quota in formal recruitment will look like they are simply participating in recruitment, rather than COBing, and therefore take away the negative stigma about COBing chapters since it can be viewed negatively at a school like UGA. A PNMs spot may essentially be there because the chapter would have had to COB normally, but it allows the campus to think that Patty PNM got her bid through recruitment rather than COB.

2) The separate quotas will make it very hard to figure out if a group missed their quota or not...say ABC matches their quota of 10, and struggling chapter XYZ misses their quota of 25 but still gets 15 women. The stigma about them being a struggling chapter is gone because nobody else knew what their quota was and they, comparatively, still got a large class. Maybe they would have had to COB those 15 women anyways, and now they only have 10 spots open for COB. They can do a much more private COB or snap bid to fill those spots rather than advertising COB to get the 25 women they needed. I imagine that to get 25 women through COB they would have had to advertise a lot, and the UGA stigma would paint their chapter as undesirable, but now they can just secretly COB and add those girls to their quota from spring recruitment.

I'm totally cool with both those reasons, but the official word suggests that it's all about the January admits and I think framing it like that is less than above board. And for some reason, it bugs me.

[shadden]

I agree that it seems a bit unusual to just have spring recruitment because of the new admits. The Red and Black article today posts the number of new freshmen at 202, but says that UGA accepted 950 transfers with 60 hours or more if I read it correctly. I know that there are currently about 70 women who have signed up for Spring recruitment, but I think they have the whole month of January so the number could go up a good bit. I think Spring recruitment is a great thing - much more relaxed for those girls who might struggle with the very formal Fall recruitment, but it will be interesting to see if it becomes a yearly event.

[33girl]

UGAalum94 - I think APhiAnna hit the nail on the head. They are killing 2 birds with one stone. The thing is, if you bring up that it's to take away the stigma, it just reminds everyone of the stigma.

[borogirl]

So if someone went through as freshman dropped out then when through as sophomore and was cut would they have a chance at all with spring rush?

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by borogirl

So if someone went through as freshman dropped out then when through as sophomore and was cut would they have a chance at all with spring rush?

As long as they did not accept a bid during formal recruitment, they'd be eligible for spring recruitment.

However, whether a chapter will give them a bid is up to the individual chapter. At some schools, it is difficult for sophomores to get bids, but since UGA is kind of new to spring recruitment, I don't know how class status will affect the chance of getting a bid.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by shadden

I agree that it seems a bit unusual to just have spring recruitment because of the new admits. The Red and Black article today posts the number of new freshmen at 202, but says that UGA accepted 950 transfers with 60 hours or more if I read it correctly. I know that there are currently about 70 women who have signed up for Spring recruitment, but I think they have the whole month of January so the number could go up a good bit. I think Spring recruitment is a great thing - much more relaxed for those girls who might struggle with the very formal Fall recruitment, but it will be interesting to see if it becomes a yearly event.

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

As long as they did not accept a bid during formal recruitment, they'd be eligible for spring recruitment.

However, whether a chapter will give them a bid is up to the individual chapter. At some schools, it is difficult for sophomores to get bids, but since UGA is kind of new to spring recruitment, I don't know how class status will affect the chance of getting a bid.

I'm completely happy about the spring recruitment itself. And I agree with the "two birds with one stone" assessment as well.

I just don't like it when people sort of pretend they are doing something for a kind of selfless reason (Oh, we're so responsive to the new January admits) when it's really something they've wanted/needed to do for a long time. It's not something I would even mention if I were an adviser or anything; it's just the kind of stuff that annoys me enough to mention repeatedly here.

My guess if they really wanted to serve the transfer students well, that a separate upperclassmen quota would be the way to do it. It will be interesting to see who most of the PNMs are in terms of class standing and when they were admitted. I hope UGA gives out some data at the end or that someone posts it here.

And as far as KSUviolent's response and the question that provoked it, I'm going to be a little raincloud here and suggest that if you had two unsuccessful recruitments, something will probably have had to change about you as a candidate to get a successful result this time. It's possible that groups will be more open to you as a non-freshman in informal or depending on the number of openings and the number of girls rushing (yeah, I said it, rushing), but it's probably kind of unrealistic to think if you went through formal just this fall and got dropped by everyone, that recruitment this January will be awesome. I certainly hope that I'm wrong. I'd love to see all PNMs happy in groups that love them.

[shadden]

Due to the smaller anticipated numbers for spring recruitment, I have heard that chapters may not require 100 percent participation from their actives. For example, some houses may have just their sophomores, new initiates and some representatives from their leadership run the parties. This is a great opportunity for new members to learn the ropes for recruitment before the chaos of Formal recruitment when the numbers are so much larger. If Spring recruitment becomes a permanent feature, it might reduce the numbers going through in the fall.

[KSUViolet06]

I can see where this may benefit the chapters who regularly have some form of spring recruitment, as they are most likely very familiar with informal recruitment strategies and such. This is potentially a good experience for other chapters though, as they will learn about COB/informal.

[kiteflyerzl]

The facts as I understand them:

1. Every chapter will participate
2. There are currently about 150 women registered
3. There is a limit to the number of actives that each chapter can have participate on their side.
4. There will be a quota.
5. Only chapters below total will be allowed to take quota additions.
6. The purpose (as previously stated) is to provide an opportunity for those women who were accepted for this semester to join a GLO.
7. The recruitment is strictly no frills - no decorations, no songs, etc.