More Texas Recruitement Info

[SWTXBelle]

Hey, epchick, trying being a Texan who moved to Tennessee. Apparently, they have a UT in Knoxville!!!!!

[FSUZeta]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

Hey, epchick, trying being a Texan who moved to Tennessee. Apparently, they have a UT in Knoxville!!!!!

imagine my surprise when i found out that fsu could also stand for fresno state or frostburg state!!

[nittanyalum]

Originally Posted by FSUZeta

imagine my surprise when i found out that fsu could also stand for fresno state or frostburg state!!

And imagine my pain every time Earp mentions "PSU". I just want to scream, "Say Pitt State!!!"

[Benzgirl]

Originally Posted by nittanyalum

And imagine my pain every time Earp mentions "PSU". I just want to scream, "Say Pitt State!!!"

Well, Earp would rather occupy his mouth with alcholic bevvies berfore he would speak excess words.

[LampLady]

I have read with interest the comments of members on both sides of the issue of TX recruitment practices and just had to sit here and smile. By way of background, I pledged back in the day (1970's) at a large state university in the Northeast and was a member of a successful single letter chapter of one of the largest sororities. We had limited alumni involvement in rush, other than from recent alums enrolled in grad school; with the exception of a group of about 5-6 ladies that continued to help out with newsletters, initiation, and house corporation activities through the years. I only recall having about 6 legacies pledge in the entire 4 years. Recommendations were seldom received until after pledging, when we requested them for our selected pledges from the reference committee for therir area. Membership selection was done entirely by the active members...without pictures, pre-rush fashion shows, and recommendations.

In 1985, I moved to the Houston area and joined my local Alumni Panhellenic and began to truly understand Panhellenic culture shock. These women were very involved in their individual sorority's activities and took their responsibility to submit recommendations very seriously. Girls were given training sessions on how to prepare for rush, including fashion shows by local boutique stores to show what kind of outfit to wear on each day of recruitment. Each girl is to prepare a resume, that includes the often mentioned pictures, along with lists of academic credentials, activities, honors, and volunteer activities. It also requests parents' names and Greek affiliations and occupations. (In the South, "what your Daddy does" is extremely important. I couldn't even tell you the occupations of most of my sisters or neighbors. Where I come from. ..nobody cared or would even ask.) Although my particular sorority did not request this, my fellow Panhel members of other sororities have told me that their groups have the reference committees rate each of the girls with a score. Most sent in all of their resume and recommendation forms/letters on each girl...some sororities at some schools were instrcted to "only send us your top three"!! This was baffling to me at the time. It was explained to me that many of the top groups at schools such as UT, LSU, and Ole Miss had "geographical quotas"...i.e. they will only pledge 1 girl from XYZ high school or they save 3 slots for girls from ABC wealthy suburb. I wasn't sure whether to believe this at the time, but the results seemed to back it up. The women would be extremely proud and celebrate when "one of their girls" actually got a bid to one of the "top tier" groups at certain schools...and there really was usually only 1 girl! When I inquired as to why the deadline to send in references was so early for certain schools, I was told that the groups pour over the resumes and post the pictures of PNMs all over the house to promote their favorite girls, if they know them personally. With pledge classes from 60-80 girls, it is apparently extremely important to get the support of as many actives as possible to be high emough on the bid lists.

Legacies are very, very common in the South, as there is a very strong family sorority tradition. (Girls are known to transfer schools if they do not get a bid to their legacy chapter.) Unfortunately, I hear that chapters, more often than not, have more legacies going through rush than they have quota slots. As you can imagine, this causes some very unhappy alumnae Moms.

When I was the local Alumne Panhellenic President about 6 or 8 years ago, I matter-of-factly read the NPC resolutions/pacts/agreements regarding the information that was to be collected from PNMs at one of meetings. When I mentioned that pictures, ACT/SAT scores, and parents' occupations were not on the list and suggested that we take these items off of our sample resume form, I was met with looks of horror from my fellow members. After a lengthly discussion, they decided that we should still include them "as an option" and tell the girls at the information sessions that chapters "strongly suggest including this information"....so much for following NPC resolutions. Traditions don't die easily in the South.

So much for my verbosity...I just thought I would shed some light on things that I had no idea about when I moved below the Mason-Dixon line. I guess we can both learn from each other. We are less superficial in the North, yet chapters are larger and have more members (on average) in the South. Go figure...it's all interesting

[LPIDelta]

Originally Posted by LampLady

When I was the local Alumne Panhellenic President about 6 or 8 years ago, I matter-of-factly read the NPC resolutions/pacts/agreements regarding the information that was to be collected from PNMs at one of meetings. When I mentioned that pictures, ACT/SAT scores, and parents' occupations were not on the list and suggested that we take these items off of our sample resume form, I was met with looks of horror from my fellow members. After a lengthly discussion, they decided that we should still include them "as an option" and tell the girls at the information sessions that chapters "strongly suggest including this information"....so much for following NPC resolutions. Traditions don't die easily in the South.

I know of a story where a delegate to a Texas alumnae panhellenic wanted the APH group to get involved with UT's (and other big schools in Texas) collegiate panhellenic in order to review the recruitment rules, all of them, as well as the NPC resolutions. She then wanted us to make sure that all our member groups with chapters at UT (and the other alumnae panhellenics in the area) knew and understood the rules so that "everyone was on a equal playing field." All good intentions.

She was laughed at and pretty much run off.

I don't know how it all came to be, but alumnae are involved in what I will call "pre-recruitment". Its so common in some areas that if one alumnae association does choose to follow the rules and not take pnms to lunch or do other meetings with them, it comes across as if that NPC isn't interested in the pnm. And its all a violation of "the rules" but you might imagine what the response would be if someone ratted on the groups doing this. So people get in the game--and it continues.