The Differences in Sorority & Fraternity Rush: Why?

[ScarletBlueGold]

I think there is something to be said about both styles of Recruitment.

I do have to say though, of the schools I've visited, true success lies somewhere in-between. I've seen some schools where the system is so loose that it destroys some chapters, and I've seen the system is so strict that it kills the morale to participate.

Ultimately, I think that regulating recruitment is a lot like regulating a business. Over-regulation kills profits and destroys incentives, and under-regulation spawns greed and often times limits organizational sustainability.

When I was a Freshman, the sororities were over-regulated. The Panhellenic sought to reduce competition making equity their primary concern. The different chapters stopped actively recruiting (instead the Pi Chis were the only ones responsible for meeting PNMs), Frills were banned entirely (no balloons, no table-cloths, nothing), and cutting was mandated by each chapter to ensure each sorority got an equal number of members. There was almost no incentive to boost numbers, and recruitment numbers declined so much that each chapter had to COR more and more after each Formal Recruitment.

The Fraternities at my school, on the other hand, had almost no restrictions. Alcohol was used during recruitment, Sorority girls participated at each event, and members were allowed to bid/initiate anyone and anywhere. One chapter who was non-pledging (hint: Not SigEp) started recruiting PNMs far before school even started. They would actually hold initiations AT Freshman Orientation and would have a group of Freshman at Fish Camp initiating even more people. They would initiate as many as 50 - 70 people each semester and kick out the ones they didn't like (this, of course, would spoil them from being able to join another Fraternity) and those people didn't have very positive things to say about the Greek System afterwards. This, of course, led to a lot of shit-talking from the other Fraternities which, of course, led to even more shit-talking by this chapter, and caused an overall decline in Recruitment numbers for Fraternities.

Fortunately our (former) Greek Advisors "resigned" and were replaced by excellent staff people. They taught us how to compromise on Regulations and encouraged us to investigate how other schools did it. We ultimately found that the best solution was somewhere in-between. The sororities began to loosen their restrictions allowing chapters to decorate their rooms and 'friend' girls on Facebook, and the Fraternities restricted women and alcohol from recruitment as well as creating a "hands-off" bidding from Freshman Move-in to Bid Day.

Really I don't think there is such a thing as the "Best" recruitment rules, only the "Right" recruitment rules.