Thread to Draft NutBrnHair Into the Retro Recruitment Thread Movement!

[NutBrnHair]

The year was 1979. A sweet young Southern girl named Nut, from a small Tennessee city, arrived at the middle Georgia campus of Topia University (Utopia, for short). She was an only child, but her best friend since the age of four was her roommate. Two other girls from Nut’s high school class also were members of the freshman class. Topia was a 4,000 student school affiliated with the Baptist church, but the Greek system seemed to be an integral part of the campus scene.

There were four NPC groups on campus:

Ruby
Sapphire
Pearl
Emerald

Nut and her best friend Carol began to move into their first floor un-air-conditioned dorm room with the assistance of their parents. A friendly upperclassman named Susan wearing her sorority jersey (Ruby) helped carry the suitcases to the room.

The freshman class gathered in the Chapel for a general meeting before being divided into Orientation Groups. The Panhellenic President spoke about signing up for sorority Rush. Nut, Carol and their other 2 high school friends Kay & Holly were all looking forward to Rush. Holly’s mother had been a member of the Ruby sorority when she was in school, but none of the other 3 was a legacy.

All of the freshmen were divided into 30 person groups led by an OA (Orientation Assistant). Nut’s OA was a Junior and was a member of the Sapphire sorority. She seemed very mature and worldly to Nut.

All four registered for Rush at the Student Center. The Rush Counselors, Panhellenic Officers and RAs (Resident Advisors) were the only women who had to disaffiliate with their sororities during Rush. Silence was not enacted until Pref Round. There was, of course, a rule prohibiting sorority women from spending any money or giving gifts to the rushees.

Nut was already familiar with the names of three of the groups (Ruby, Sapphire & Pearl). Most of the girls from Nut’s high school joined sororities and she remembered seeing the young alumnae return to campus with pledge pins and sorority badges. Nut’s mother had friends who secured recommendations for at least one of the groups.

Rush was held in a Panhellenic building – an old Victorian home that had been converted to four suites for the NPC groups. During the first round of Rush, the two NPHC groups on campus, Delta Sigma Theta and Alpha Kappa Alpha made a presentation to all of the rushees explaining their structure and their intake process.

The first round of parties seemed to fly by – seems like we all wore sundresses and espadrilles and were greeted in each suite by singing and clapping! I do recall that the Emerald group all dressed in gauchos and had one member dressed up as their mascot! The suites were crowded and the small window air conditioners couldn’t keep up. All of the suites were nicely decorated. Nut noticed that each group’s décor matched the colors of their organization. All of the songs were catchy and we returned to the dorm very excited, because Rush was finally underway.