Otterbein General Recruitment Thread

[PhoenixAzul]

Originally Posted by knitsnpurls

I'm glad that recruitment has started off well for all of the houses

I had a question though, what do you mean by "independent sophomores"? They're rushing but aren't assigned a group?

ah sorry, should have clarified.

Independent Sophomores are sophomores that went through rush freshman year and either a) signed independent or b) did not receive a bid. They may be added to a chapter's off quota list, or they may chose to go through recruitment again. Rushing again holds little to no stigma here, and upper classwomen regularly receive bids.

[FSUZeta]

caffeine has not kicked in yet-would you please explain what the term
"signed independent" means. i am not familiar with that term.

[PhoenixAzul]

hehe, man its hard to get the slang out here. It's funny because the NPC stuff I've picked up from the board sneaks into my language at Otterbein!

Signed independent-- when women sign their preference card, they may choose not to join a sorority at this time for whatever reason. To indicate this, they fill in "independent" as their first choice, and go on their merry way.

Where this gets sticky is the culture of suiciding (Single intention preference). I know that 80% of my pledge class suicided my sorority. It happens a lot, way too much in my opinion.

So a girl signs XYZ as her first choice, then signs "independent". If she doesn't get XYZ, she's independent.

After that happens, two things can occur in her favor.
1) she's put on the "did not match" list, which goes to the chapters after bid matching. Any chapter not at quota may chose to extend her a bid. She obviously doesn't have to accept, but there it is.
2) she may be extended a bid off quota the following year.

It's sorta complicated and scenario 1 doesn't happen that often at all.


I really wish girls would list more than 1 chapter, because I truly and honestly think that they can be happy in at least 2 chapters here...but there's no real repercussions for doing SIP.

[knitsnpurls]

Oh okay, that all makes sense now. Thanks for the explanation

[FSUZeta]

yes, thank you for the explanation. it sounds like a good idea to have pnms indicate that they will remain independent.

[UGAalum94]

FSUZeta, I agree. Having to writing in independent might make the potential results of SIPing that much more stark.

[PhoenixAzul]

Originally Posted by Alphagamuga

FSUZeta, I agree. Having to writing in independent might make the potential results of SIPing that much more stark.

Yep. My freshman year, we had an unusually high number of girls sign independent at the end of rush. Many of them ended up pledging or rushing again their sophomore year.

I just really wish girls would think about it more . I can kinda hear the grumblings of "I only want ____ or nothing!", not so much from my group, but from talking to the other PX's, it's there. That's gotta be nipped in the butt right now.

Plus we've got misinformation going around that's reached the greek life adviser. Apparently, someone started a rumor about how sororities will be unable to take pledge classes if they are caught drinking in front of PNM's. Not true. Actives are not allowed to drink in any situation where PNM's or potential PNM's are present (fraternity rush parties, house parties unaffiliated w/ the sorority, etc). It's a violation of a) campus policy--dry campus. b) rush rules--no alcohol at any rush function/anything that could be a potential rush situation c) panhellenic rules of interaction w/ pnms--possiblity of dirty rushing is high. It won't *necessarily* cause a chapter to lose its pledge class, but it will be dealt with as an infraction and sent to the United Greek Governing Board. There will be sanctions, but the loss of a pledge class is one of the most severe punishments that can be given, and isn't a situation that's taken lightly.