I was on Panhel exec when I heard about this one...
There was a chapter on our campus which had a reputation for taking only wealthy girls. I'll call it "XYZ". (2 members of this chapter happened to be on Panhel Exec with me, BTW.)
That year, a young woman with a very recognizable family name went through rush at my campus. I'll call her "Kelly". (Her great-grandfather founded a huge national company that you'd all recognize, and her family still owned it.) XYZ was absolutely certain beyond question that "Kelly" would pledge their house just because of her name...before rush even began they were counting on landing her. Their members would openly talk about how great/prestigious it was going to be to have "Kelly" as a pledge. When the talk started getting around amongst sorority members, a lot of people made the assumption that "Kelly" wanted XYZ as much as they obviously wanted her.
Many other chapters were so certain that "Kelly" would end up going XYZ that she got dropped from a lot of chapters...and had pretty heavy cuts between third round and preference. Which was a shame, because she was a dream PNM even without the family name. Smart, gorgeous, funny, friendly...she could have had her pick of almost any house on almost any campus. She was oblivious to how much XYZ was talking her up behind the scenes, and that it was affecting her invitations back to other chapters.
"Kelly" ended up being invited to 2 chapters for preference - XYZ and ABC. ABC was one of the smallest chapters on campus at the time, and they unfortunately often experienced a lot of negative tent talk. (Guys would tell PNMs that the chapter was full of all "fat girls," even though that wasn't true and there were plenty of attractive women there. A few heavier women too, but who cares?)
"Kelly" ended up receiving a bid from ABC.
After Bid Day, "Kelly" came to the Panhel office very confused and said that she thought she had received the wrong bid. (Our whole exec board happened to be there, because we'd just had a brief meeting to wrap up some rush stuff.) We explained briefly how bid matching works and said that she hadn't received the wrong bid...she just matched up with ABC based on where they had each other ranked on their lists.
But...there is a happy ending...
I know you're probably thinking that "Kelly" was confused/upset because she
wanted the wealthy, popular XYZ chapter, and assumed that she couldn't possibly have actually matched with the less desireable ABCs.
You'd be wrong though.
Turns out that "Kelly" was confused and came to our office because of a little run in she'd had with some XYZs. They tracked her down on campus and assured her that she wouldn't be "stuck" with a bid from ABC...there must have been some mistake because she was #1 on XYZs bid list. Surely she should have matched with them! And they assured her that they would get the problem fixed for her.
"Kelly" was concerned because she had intentionally put ABC first...she didn't want to get that bid taken away and be forced to go XYZ. (She didn't know much about bid matching, and when XYZ told her that she had been their #1 she was worried that her own personal ranking might not matter.)
Not knowing that there were 2 XYZs in the room (remember - I said 2 of them were on Panhel exec w/me
), she also went on to say that she didn't care much for the XYZs because they never bothered to get to know her during rush...just wanted to talk about her family and certain "status" things. She felt like the ABCs were more interested in getting to know her as an individual person, not just as someone from a prominent family. Although I really did like and get along with the 2 XYZ members on exec with me, the look on their faces was priceless when "Kelly" was telling how relieved she was that she could stay with ABC and not get "stuck" with XYZ.
I don't think XYZ ever had a clue that the dirty rushing was going to backfire on them in the end. Its a shame that XYZ's actions affected Kelly's chances with other groups, but as far as I know she remained a happy, involved member of ABC until she graduated. (I graduated while she was a junior, and I recall she was still a member then...whether or not she left that chapter during her senior year, I don't know.)
)
I'm appalled they'd even be ALLOWED to do such a thing or that anyone would even give them the time of day knowing they did that.
Hybrid Mode
