Defered Recruitment: Pros and Cons

[33girl]

Originally Posted by KLPDaisy

With all due respect, I have to disagree here. I went to a school with deferred rush, and dirty rushing and rumors were rampant. At the end of first semester, sororities would always try to have parties or dessert socials for freshman girls to get them to remember them in recruitment. Some would also start looking for a spring pledge class in the fall. With regard to rumors, it deferring recruitment gives pnm's a chance to learn more, even if it's not voluntarily. I had one of the fraternity guys at my school im'ing me most of first semester telling me rumors about each of the sororities to get me to try to not rush. My sophomore year, we had a girl telling all of her friends not to go KLP or XYZ (name withheld for obvious reasons) because "all KLP's are fat and all XYZ's are ugly." (The joke was on her because we got two of her best friends!)

So did I. We got all the same rumors. So did the other sororities. That way, when we got our pledges, we knew they had heard all that stupid stuff (and some real stuff, too) and wanted to be there ANYWAY. Unlike some of the posters we've had on here who joined before they even took a college class, and then came on and said "OMG this sorority is NOTHING like they were in rush and they never have mixers what should I do?!?!??!??"

FSUZeta, I've heard of schools having deferred rush before second semester starts. For really huge schools/rushes that would be an option. But honestly, I've never rushed NOT during classes. We did, however, spread it out over 2 weeks. I think squeezing rush into a school weekend plus a day is nuts.

[FSUZeta]

at fgcu, they start recruitment on a wednesday or thursday night-first party is around 9:30, after night classes have been dismissed. first round of parties last year there were 4 rush groups for the two sororities-we did not get out of there until after midnite-there was no voting or discussion-all pnms were coming back to both chapters the next day. there were 4 days of recruitment. there will be more rush groups coming thru this year-panhellenic has actually advertised recruitment during orientation this year -i hope that they change the party schedule.

i have suggested that they begin recruitment on friday evening-that way the first two nights of recruitment(when there will be the most parties) would not as greatly impact the girls and their classwork. sunday night would be the first night of invitations, monday prefs. and tuesday bid day. hope they will consider this!!

[blackngoldengrl]

At my undergrad, one must be a sophomore, and it is held in the fall. So yes, PNMs have had a year to hear rumors, be annoyed by sorority cheers, date/hook up with the "wrong" guy (ie an ABC's Boyfriend), or even gain "bad" reputations.
AND they also have a year to meet friends who are in sororities, get good grades, find their "niche," and explore the rumors themselves, only to change their minds about sororities and decide to rush in the fall. I didn't even think about them until the spring before, and researched over the summer...
I have seen some dirty rushing, evidenced by freshmen at the bars (grrr) but you keep that in mind for the fall and there are PLENTY of women who sign up on a whim the next year too.

I really think that deferred rush promotes what higher education is all about, learning and growing as an individual. The women have time to figure themselves out and adjust to college life. Though rush is held during classes in the fall, it is spread over 1.5 weeks, since it usually will start in the evenings. Also there are four sororities total at my alma mater, 3 NPC and 1 local. I guess that makes it a bit easier to get done during the school year.

When I found out that a lot of large schools do recruitment BEFORE school started, I was shocked! There was a lot I didn't know-some of your schools really don't mess around!

[honeychile]

I've seen both, and I have to admit that I prefer the idea of rushing prior to the academic term. Especially in a small sorority, many of the sorority women experience a drop in grades when they are preparing for rush party after rush party.

Our rush was about a month into school - not really deferred that much, but by then, MANY of the fraternity guys would ask you which houses you were rushing, and which of those they'd chose. That goes a long way with a freshman.

On the other hand, a sorority could bid someone who had it all - including the roundest heels on campus! So, it's not just a negative that the PNM may find out reputations of the different GLOs; the reverse is also true.

The bottom line is, I'll be all for any rush that doesn't allow cheesecake!

[SigKapSweetie]

Why did the article keep referring to the NPC groups as Pan-Hellenic?

[ufdale]

As someone who was an older rushee, I wish I'd have more time to spend with my sorority! If rush is deferred till sophomore year, NMs are losing out on a whole year of fun activities and sisterhood. Plus, it is SO HARD as a junior pledge. My classes are 10X harder than freshmen's. I like the idea of rushing before school starts freshman year, I just wish that the school had advertised greek life and deadlines a little more (so many girls just don't know about greek life if their parents/sisters weren't greek).
What I don't like about the way that my school does rush is that it only happens once a year. If you miss out on fall rush, there is no spring rush to go to. Most of my guy friends waited freshman year to rush in the spring so that they knew the guys more in each fraternity. There are soo many fraternities (high 20s) that if you don't know which to go to during rush, you'd be lost.

[TSteven]

Originally Posted by ufdale

What I don't like about the way that my school does rush is that it only happens once a year. If you miss out on fall rush, there is no spring rush to go to.

I've wondered this as well. Do any campuses do this - a fall and spring recruitment? Other than COB/COR that is.

Why not have some sort of formal spring recruitment? Basically scaled down and perhaps less structured. All NPC rules and regulations would apply. Girls would still have to sign up and there would be quotas etc. If Polly Pledge signed her fall bid card and drops, she still has to wait a calendar year until the fall to rush again.

Basically, the women that want to rush (join) in the fall can do so and the women that want to wait until the spring to rush can do so.

[ufdale]

I think most of the other campuses have both spring and fall, just spring is more informal. My campus gets enough girls in the fall class that most of the chapters don't need to do spring.

[PhoenixAzul]

Originally Posted by SigKapSweetie

Why did the article keep referring to the NPC groups as Pan-Hellenic?

Just as a journalism side-note:: AP stylebooks don't say anything about how to write about sorority/fraternity affairs, so most schools and newspapers are left up to their own devices to create a house style. This may be a case of house style, however incorrect. For example, to write about GLO's on our campus, we write out letters and then parenthesize their nickname (example: Sigma Delta Phi (Sphinx) will be holding a bake sale this week.) We never abbreviate the letters, unless it is a direct quote (IE. Tau Delta president Jane Jones said "I love being a TD, my sisters rock!"). But it took a while to develop that style and those rules and to teach them to our staff writers, usually bitty little freshmen. Usually, a well worded quick note to the editor does the trick. It may be a case of simply unaware, inexperienced or missed copyediting, but we always appreciate things that help us from making the same mistake twice.

[SigKapSweetie]

Originally Posted by PhoenixAzul

Usually, a well worded quick note to the editor does the trick.

Done.