IU Sorority Recruitment Concludes with Smiles! (Article)

PeppyGPhiB · #1 01-17-2007, 04:05 PM

All good points.

I think the better solution is for IU to make some changes in how formal recruitment is conducted. With so many wonderful choices of GLOs, there's just no reason why the drop/released figure should be at 50%. Does anyone know if it has to do with housing? It sounds like all sorority members have to live-in? If so, is this something that could be changed so more women may participate in greek life?

jhujenn · #2 01-17-2007, 04:50 PM

I have heard different accounts on here, but I know for a fact the Tri Delta chapter requires the women to live in, 2-4th year. From the women at IU, I was told all of the chapters require you to live-in. I can't imagine we would an noone else does, that just doesn't make sense.

Quota is not in place because the size of the new member class is determined by how many 4th years there are as well as taking into account your historical loss rate of non-graduating members.

The placement rate is low for a variety of reasons, not just because there isn't quota. Grades come into significant effect both with the PNM's and the chapters. Also women are just overwhelmed by the process and drop. I would be interested in knowing how many women are actually cross-cut, I know it happens, but I don't know how much.

ISUKappa · #3 01-17-2007, 05:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PeppyGPhiB

I think the better solution is for IU to make some changes in how formal recruitment is conducted. With so many wonderful choices of GLOs, there's just no reason why the drop/released figure should be at 50%.

Why should they? They've obviously found a system that works for their campus and Greek Life is strong there. Man, we need imsohappythatiama to explain what it was like when she went through at IU.

I think the 50% release figure is very misleading. I would be interested in seeing how many women went through the actual invitational rounds and what percentage placement that number received.

33girl · #4 01-17-2007, 05:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ISUKappa

I think the 50% release figure is very misleading. I would be interested in seeing how many women went through the actual invitational rounds and what percentage placement that number received.

I agree - I know someone posted on here and said something to the effect of "only half the girls who went through rush got a bid!" and it turned out to be only half of **eligible freshman women** or something totally different - not that 400 girls went to pref parties and only 200 of them got bids!

It makes Greek life sound more "elite" than it already is. It's a PR move.

knitsnpurls · #5 01-17-2007, 05:23 PM

If I have this correct, "quota" at IU is basically just the number of girls needed to fill the house the following year? Granted, PNMs probably drop out for a variety of reasons (grades, lack of interest, etc...), but it seems like the sororities there are missing out on a lot of really great women by limiting their numbers to just bed spaces.

I can understand requiring that enough girls live in-house to fill all of the beds, but I don't see why someone couldn't be a member of a sorority and live elsewhere. Only about 1/3 of our girls can actually live in the house.

I'm not criticizing as their system seems to work for the school, but I'm definitely curious as to how/why IU came up with this system. I'd love to hear more about it from anyone who knows more.

irishpipes · #6 01-17-2007, 07:35 PM

It isn't really based on bed spaces - it is based on how many girls you lose to graduation. Our chapter at IU has about 200 members. It isn't like they are keeping the chapters tiny.

PeppyGPhiB · #7 01-17-2007, 07:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by irishpipes

It isn't really based on bed spaces - it is based on how many girls you lose to graduation. Our chapter at IU has about 200 members. It isn't like they are keeping the chapters tiny.

Knitsnpurls is thinking similar to me. If the women drop on their own accord, or are inelligible because of grades, that's fine. I was more concerned with what seemed to be a very high "released from recruitment" rate, which is very small at most schools.

Filling beds is basically the same thing as "replacing the number of seniors lost" if it's done every year if you think about it. If all the chapters have the same number of beds (all members required to live in), then that seems fair, but what if one chapter house only holds 170 when another holds 200? Is that chapter always going to be smaller than the others?

DeltaBetaBaby · #8 01-17-2007, 08:46 PM

We have this conversation every year after IU recruitment, so I suggest a search on the topic.

They do not use release figures, nor do they use quota/total. This is because everyone lives in the house from the fall after pledging until graduation (i.e. 3 years if you pledge as a freshman, 2 if you pledge as a sophomore). If you have a bigger house, you will have a larger chapter.

I don't think you can say it "works," because you may have chapters who get their pick of the women, but you have a lot of disappointed PNM's, which I promise you is not good for NPC as a whole.