The Wonderful Wizard of OR: An Oregon Recruitment Story

[PiPhiERDoc]

Does TriDelta have a house now? And is it the same house they were in when they were on campus before?

lol...yeah makes sense!!!

[WCsweet<3]

Yes Tri-Delta does have a house. There was an agreement that they needed to have a house before this recruitment.

It is not the same house they had before. It is on 15th and Kincaid if you know the campus at all. There was a fraternity in the house and then some drama went down and three houses did a shuffle.

[TweedleDee199]

Thank you all so much for the positive feedback! I decided to wait to post anything until after our preference round, which is tomorrow night. I'll try to post everything all at once and not drag it out too much. So far recruitment has definitely been an eye opening process and NOTHING like what I had expected. And that is not at all a bad thing

[southbymidwest]

Good luck TweedleDee!

[barbino]

TweedleDee,

Best Wishes from me! Let us know about your new Sorority.

(OK, my attempt at humor fails. I'm much better at just plain writing. Have a great recruitment and tell us how it goes).

[Football Fan]

Tri Delta promised Univ. of Oregon to have the house completed for fall recruitment. Theta Delta sisters moved in to a house on 15th Street. The inside has been completely redone and the outside has been changed as well. The lot was relandscaped, adding shrubs and beds of flowers. Capacity of the new house is 54, so some members will not be able to live in at this time.

As I understand it the house is across the street from Alpha Chi Omega.

Other Tri Delta chapters and alumnae sent gifts to the chapter, many with Tri Delta symbols.

There is a photo of the new house on the Tri Delta website.

[TweedleDee199]

I originally had no intention of posting about my orientation, but after I got home that night I knew it was a significant start to my story. So….
Round: Orientation
Song Playing In My Head: It’s A Small World Afterall

I walked over to orientation alone. The meeting place was pretty hard to miss: hundreds and hundreds of girls were crowded onto a few street corners and the outside of one of our lecture halls. Everywhere Rho Gammas and recruitment staff were yelling out directions. After checking a list and getting my group number I headed over to where my group was stationed. The Rho Gamma holding our group sign seemed nice enough, and I was curious to meet our other. Some girls were already having conversations, some just standing. Being the introvert I am I watched and listened, not feeling an instant connection to anyone. I was amazed by the variety of girls in my group, everything from skinny jeans and Toms to Juicy and Chanel. I was glad to see a heterogeneous mix. After I’d been standing there for a few minutes I was shocked to see a girl from my middle school that I hadn’t spoken with in years. I had no idea she went to Oregon and never would have expected her to rush, but it was nice to see a familiar face. I’ll be calling her Donald.
Eventually our group migrated and our other Rho Gamma joined us. I blinked. She looked so familiar. So so familiar. But the glasses were new and the hair was different…I thought I knew her but I wasn’t convinced. She read role and when she reached my name she stopped and looked at me as if trying to place me too, then asked if I had an older sister, which I don’t. Now I was 80% certain…as we started walking to another lecture hall for a power point our rho gams introduced themselves, and sure enough, I was right. I should mention now that I went to a small all girls high school where everyone knows everything about everyone else, even if you’ve never spoken, and even after they graduate. Not many girls from my school go to Oregon and of those few you can count the Greeks on one hand. Only one of those was a rho gam this year…so of course she was mine. Darkwing as I’ll call her graduated 2 years ahead of me, and despite never really being friends with her I knew beyond a doubt which house she was in. We got to the lecture hall first of all the groups and I sat down in the front row. Waiting for the presentation to start I went round and round in my head, was it bad to know my rho gams house? Should I say something? Did I need to switch groups? Was I supposed to keep my mouth shut and not make things difficult for anyone? I know these seem like silly concerns but I was already tripped out on nerves for recruitment and this FREAKED ME OUT. I thought for a few minutes then sent a frenzied text to one of the few active UO greeks I know, a colleague from work, and asked her what to do. Within a few minutes she responded and told me to chill, she’d been in the same situation last year and as long as I didn’t advertise her affiliation I would be fine. I felt mildly better, but not entirely.
At this point I looked around the giant lecture hall and realized that it wasn’t even entirely filled. Clearly fewer girls had signed up than I thought. The presentation began and we were told that there was another presentation going on at the same time and this was in fact only HALF the girls going through. My year had set a record: 800 girls would be going through, 200 more than last year. That did nothing for my nerves. The presentation took the time to mention that the times for round 2 on Saturday had specifically been adjusted so that PNMs could attend the football game against Stanford. I hadn’t gotten a ticket to the game [we have an automated online ticket system rather than standing in line like normal people] which had really upset me, but I was happy not to have to worry about going straight from recruitment to the game. After the presentations we met in our group and I recognized even more faces in some vague sense, this one from a soccer game, another from a dance competition, so on and so forth. I was a little put off by the fact that I didn’t seem to fit in at all with a lot of the girls in my group who struck me as being there for wrong reasons [lots of talk about which houses got invited to the best fraternity parties, etc.] but all of the rho gammas had seemed wonderful and I wasn’t going to let a first impression of girls who may or may not join one the nine different houses on campus affect my view of an entire system. Hell, knowing my record of changing my mind I figured that any one of the girls who left a bad taste in my mouth could end up being a close friend. I went home that night feeling more nervous than I had come and unsure of what to expect tomorrow. Stewie and Dewie had similar experiences with girls in their groups and dropped out right then and there. I was a little upset not to have any close friends going through now, but I reminded myself that now I could spend more time focusing on my own impressions and not someone else’s. That night it took me ages to fall asleep. I tossed and turned and hoped that after tomorrow I would be one step closer to finding a home…

[xowest]

Looking forward to hearing the rest. (Crazy, but I think I might have attended the same h.s. as you, but I am a lot older so it would have been many years before you.)

[TweedleDee199]

Hey xowest! You should definitely PM me what school, that'd be crazy if it was the same!
So.
I apologize for...
A. the fact that this is so long. Superfluity always did get me marked down on my essays.
B. That I'm posting so slowly. I revoke all previous annoyance towards other GCers slow to post their stories. I think I forgot that to be going through recruitment one must also be, you know, in college. That pesky education thing keeps getting in the way...
C. Any grammatical errors which so often annoy GCers. I wrote this late at night after finishing a history essay. Feel free to laugh at me.
And now without further ado....
ROUND 1: OPEN HOUSE , Day 1

If no one minds too much I thought I’d start a little before recruitment that day….
Like at many schools, we’d been given a recruitment shirt to wear for the first two rounds. Unfortunately there was a lot of confusion over them. Remember there were two lecture hall presentations going at orientation? One got told to wear them, one got told not to. I wasn’t sure what I would do so I decided to ask the only other girl on my floor rushing, Louie. I was a little nervous she and I had barely spoken and she tended not to spend any time with girls in our hall. She lives right across the hall from me so I stuck my head out just as she was coming out to take a shower, wrapped in a towel. As soon as the question had left my mouth she went “Oh crap... I think I just locked myself out…” This was an hour before we had to be at recruitment. After she’d taken her shower and couldn’t get ahold of her room mate she hid out in my room while I ran around the complex trying to find an RA to let her in. Interestingly enough, helping to rescue someone who is locked out in just a towel is quite the bonding experience. We were friends after that and it was nice to know I had someone to talk to about recruitment if I needed it.
I was supposed to be at recruitment at 5, but our rho gams had told us we wouldn’t be leaving until 5:40. This was Thursday, which at Oregon the week before a home game, is the day all student tickets that were returned go up online . Everyone had told me that no one, NO ONE, ever gets a ticket that way, and really who would return a ticket to the first home game of the term? I didn’t think I’d be able to even try because of rush, but on a whim I decided to leave later and try…and I got one. I literally skipped to recruitment. It was so hard to walk around screaming “I GOT A TICKET I GOT A TICKET!” I was on a high and it felt like everything was right in the world [ah how easy we college students are to please]. I felt like only good things would happen now. Eventually I met up with my group and after waiting around an awfully long time we set out for out first house. At this point there were roughly 35-40 girls in a walking group and two walking groups visiting a house at a time.

GLINDA: When I’d first talked about rushing my parents had both said “You should be a Glinda! This was because they only Greeks they knew in college were all Glindas. I knew a lot about this organization nationally and was really excited to visit. We did the normal [or at least at I think it’s normal…I’ve only done this once you see…] line up outside by PNM number and get called in one or two at a time. All the houses started parties at the same time and you could hear perky, “Hi, I’m Susie Sorority Woman and I’d like to invite YOU to XYZ’s open house!” from EVERY direction. I was terrified of getting called in with someone else, but was really relieved to have a rusher to myself. We went into their dining room and as I was towards the back of my group alphabetically there were already A LOT of girls in there. I can’t emphasize how loud it was. I felt terrible, I was actually shouting at my rusher. I honestly don’t remember anything about the first girl I talked to other than that I liked her. They bumped us very abruptly. I think I talked to 4 girls here but I couldn’t tell you for sure. I remember having one conversation in the middle with a girl about music and playing the piano where I felt a connection. The next and last girl I didn’t particularly care for, I didn’t get the sense that she was interested in me at all. Overall I was hoping to come back and meet more girls from this house.
ELPHABA: If I was to describe these girls in one word it would be “chill.” They were so relaxed and down to earth, I didn’t even realize how intense the vibe at Glinda had been until I walked in here. I talked with two girls, and I enjoyed both conversations though they weren’t anything extraordinary, the usual major, what dorm do you live in, how are classes sort of banter. The whole time I was so so nervous and hoped that it wasn’t startlingly apparent. Afterwards everyone was all atwitter: this house was clearly going to be a favorite for everyone. I really hoped to come back, but realized that everyone was hoping the same thing and the chances were slim.

TINMAN: Standing outside I started to talk to two of the girls in front of me and commented that I wished I had gotten more recs. The girl immediately in front of me commented that she had at least one to every house, while the other had never even heard of them. The latter is more the usual attitude at Oregon and the first girl reminded me of what I’ve heard about the big SEC schools. I thought about asking her but then we were called inside. The house was lovely and instead of being in a dining room like the last two houses I was in a living room. My first girl seemed pretty goofy, like the girl that would always make you laugh in class. She started off by saying “I hate all the rush small talk. So what’s your favorite tv show?” We had a nice conversation about How I Met Your Mother and Modern Family, then the president chimed in to introduce the house mom which I thought was sweet. The next girl seemed really nice and when she asked about why I was rushing I told her that going to an all-girls school had been a big factor and she commented that it had been the exact same for her. It turned out that she had gone to a sister school my high school! Again I hoped that my nerves weren’t shining through too much. I really liked the girls I talked to and knew I would love to come back.

LION: One of my childhood friends had just gone Lion at UW the week before and in the back of my head I was thinking it would be great if we ended up sisters. Just as at the other three houses I waited outside praying that I wouldn’t get double rushed, and if I did that it was that it would be with the nice girl behind me, not she-of-the-many-recs in front of me. Unfortunately, I wasn’t the customer with highest number on prayer grants that night. I got called in a pair with scary intense girl and it was immediately clear that this girl was no amateur. You know how some kids in Asia start studying for university exams when they’re in like 7th grade? I felt like this girl had been brought up the same way, but for rush. It was apparent in the way she sat just so, legs crossed, hands folded in her lap, torso leaned in towards the rusher just a little to show that she was interested. She dominated the conversation while simultaneously deferring to me from time to time so not to seem pushy. I’m not kidding: this girl was like the Chuck Norris of rush [I know, I know, that’s a whole another thread…]. The first rusher was alright, I certainly didn’t hate her or anything, but she was obviously more interested in the other girl, although she tried to include me in conversation. A couple minutes into conversation the other girl mentioned that everyone in her family had been Greek…at Alabama. I mentally banged my head against the table. We got bumped and it got worse. I didn’t like this girl and she quite obviously had NO interest in me. We got to the topic of the game and she asked if I liked football. I said yes and she looked at me like I was a foreign species. I sat there while the rusher and other PNM had a nice little convo which in no way or shape included me. It didn’t help that I couldn’t hear a thing the rusher was saying: this was the loudest house yet and I have no flipping idea how the other PNM heard her. Is supersonic hearing taught in rush boot camp? I don’t know. Anyways… It was a painfully awkward experience but mentally I bared my teeth and reminded myself that I’d be awfully lucky and unusual if I got through recruitment without at least one of those. I knew without a doubt that this house would drop me and I would have absolutely no problem with that.

AUNTIE EM: After the mess at Lion it was such a relief to see the Auntie Em house. This was the only house on campus that I knew girls in. It was so comforting to know that I might see a familiar face, at least in passing. At the same time I came in a little critical, I did not want to be someone that chose a house just because my friends were there. I got picked up, solo thank God, by a senior. This was the first house that actually spread us out across a few rooms. For the first time that night, I was able to carry on a conversation in a normal tone of voice. It was fabulous. My rusher was wonderful. It turned out that the only girl from my school in the house was her little. We had a great conversation involving everything from dorm food to student government and the recent riot [oh my freshman class…look up “Eugene Riot” on Youtube if you’re wondering]. It was the first time I’d seen anyone laugh all night. I was actually bummed to get bumped until I realized that it was her little, the girl from my school. She and I had never really known each other in high school though we’d been on the same sports team for a couple of years, and again: everyone knows everyone anyways. She told me that she had gone through rush for the same reasons as I had and found the same community as we’d had in high school in her chapter. She talked about what the friendship of the girls had meant to her and how great living in was this year. Honestly, it was almost more like what you’d expect from a preference conversation. It felt like a completely different breed of conversation from what I’d had the rest of the night, I wasn’t nervous here, I felt at home. I had expected to like this chapter, but I left in love. I went home for the night with the warm and fuzzy feeling I associate with being with my good friends or getting a great surprise. I went to bed smiling, and hoping that tomorrow would be just as good as the first night.

[PiPhiERDoc]

You know how some kids in Asia start studying for university exams when they’re in like 7th grade? I felt like this girl had been brought up the same way, but for rush. It was apparent in the way she sat just so, legs crossed, hands folded in her lap, torso leaned in towards the rusher just a little to show that she was interested. She dominated the conversation while simultaneously deferring to me from time to time so not to seem pushy. I’m not kidding: this girl was like the Chuck Norris of rush [I know, I know, that’s a whole another thread…]. The first rusher was alright, I certainly didn’t hate her or anything, but she was obviously more interested in the other girl, although she tried to include me in conversation. A couple minutes into conversation the other girl mentioned that everyone in her family had been Greek…at Alabama. I mentally banged my head against the table.

This may be one of the single funniest posts of all times. Thanks for making my morning...and we all felt your pain

[kappa_dancer]

I usually just lurk around these stories, and only post at the end of my favorites, but I have to tell you that I love your writing style. Your story is honest and funny, and I'm absolutely loving it! Can't wait to read more!

[arrowlady]

Originally Posted by PiPhiERDoc

You know how some kids in Asia start studying for university exams when they’re in like 7th grade? I felt like this girl had been brought up the same way, but for rush. It was apparent in the way she sat just so, legs crossed, hands folded in her lap, torso leaned in towards the rusher just a little to show that she was interested. She dominated the conversation while simultaneously deferring to me from time to time so not to seem pushy. I’m not kidding: this girl was like the Chuck Norris of rush [I know, I know, that’s a whole another thread…]. The first rusher was alright, I certainly didn’t hate her or anything, but she was obviously more interested in the other girl, although she tried to include me in conversation. A couple minutes into conversation the other girl mentioned that everyone in her family had been Greek…at Alabama. I mentally banged my head against the table.

This may be one of the single funniest posts of all times. Thanks for making my morning...and we all felt your pain

This had me laughing till I was crying, love your story so far!

[TweedleDee199]

ROUND 1, DAY 2

I started off the evening getting ready with the help of Louie across the hall and it was great to have someone to get opinions from. The fact that it had been freezing the last few days made everyone rethink their choice of wardrobe. My group and the other group that had been walking with us started with a presentation from the only local on campus. They talk to everyone first round and then those who want to pursue membership with them drop out of formal and go through their process. Obviously most girls are there looking to join a big national with high membership instead of a small local but you never know where you might find your home. So we all sat and listened. The girls all seemed nice and I recognized one from her involvement in the honors program. I thought about it, but I knew this wasn’t what I wanted. As might be expected most girls felt the same way I did but…not so sweet. As we walked outside I heard one girl behind me say, “I think I’m going to drop out and join them.” The voice had sounded sincere but when I turned around I found a girl smiling snidely and the aforementioned Chuck Norris PNM laughing with her. Having gone to high school in a Glinda-like pink sparkly bubble of love and cupcakes, I’d forgotten how mean girls can be in the real world. I didn’t particularly enjoy the wake up call. I thought about it as we walked to our next house.

UNCLE HENRY: Even though I was trying my hardest to approach recruitment with an open mind, this was the house I had been dying to visit. After learning all that I could about chapters at Oregon I’d imagined myself here time and time again. That was why haphazardly stumbling upon a rec to this house the week before school started had meant so much to me. The woman who wrote it was the mother of a girl I used to dance with. I’d always thought she hated my mother and I, so I was blown away when she offered. But there you go. Life is ironic like that. As we stood outside in line she-of-the-many-recs adjusted her hair and remarked that she wasn’t sure how they’d find anyone to rush her since she knew like half the girls in the house. She was gunning for here. Hell, EVERYONE I’d met wanted this house. It was the chocolate cake of chapters. I prayed and prayed and PRAYED not to be double rushed with her again. Getting called in solo was like getting a big weight taken off my chest; I was so relieved. We went into a dining room and again I felt like I was shouting. I really liked the girl rushing me, and she was the first person so far to ask me about community service, something that had really attracted me to Greek life. I told her about my involvement in high school and when I was bumped she told me that the new girl was the person to talk to if I had any interest in taking on leadership roles. I absolutely loved this girl. We talked about the phenomenon of being more productive when you’re involved with a million things than with a few, leaving home, our parents, and lots of other things. I was actually sad for the party to end and to leave, but I was mildly certain that between two great conversations and a recommendation I would be coming back [*, I’ll come back to this statement in a later post.] I was a little surprised, there is a girl or two from my school here and I had assumed that one would pick me up since that had happened at Auntie Em.

SCARECROW: This was another hugely popular house. A lot of girls were practically peeing themselves as we waited to go inside. I was a little skeptical and unsure if I would fit in here but really hoping to have my preconceptions disproved. Ms. Norris [haha. A Chuck Norris reference turned into a Harry Potter reference. Oh simple pleasures…] began questioning me about my favorite houses. I tried to shake her off. I was really really trying to steer away from tent talk. In retrospect I should have told her to go to hell it was personal, but I grudgingly answered Uncle Henry and Auntie Em. She apparently was also having a love affair with Uncle Henry. Great I thought, just freaking great… I started getting REALLY frustrated as we waited outside. You know how after the one minute knock it’s supposed to be quiet? The girls behind me didn’t quite get that. It didn’t matter that the rho gams told us again and again, they ran their mouths the whole time and made it hard to hear the actives in the doorway. It had gotten progressively worse through every house. One of the rho gams from the other group shushed them up. I decided I liked her. Though she wasn’t technically my rho gam our groups had moved together the whole time and I felt like I related to her better than Darkwing and our other rho gam. I got picked up solo again and was absolutely not expecting to enjoy my conversation as much as I did. My rusher asked me about music and I felt on the spot. I listen to EVERYTHING, and what constitutes my favorites are usually not things other people know. I answered a lot of pop stuff thinking we’d have something to talk about and it turned out I completely misread her. She apparently LOVED the Dave Matthews Band. I was shocked but remarked that I liked them too. She asked what my favorite song by them was. And I just blanked. You and me, crash into me….Nope. Everything went out of my head. I’m by no means a die hard Dave Matthews fan, but my mother more or less is and I’d grown up hearing them in the car. When I couldn’t come up with a name I felt like a fraud. Oh well. I really did like the girl and up until I looked like an idiot I didn’t think she hated me at all. The next girl I wasn’t sure about. We went through some generic stuff then I asked her why she had chosen this house. She said that she had come in really wanting to be a Lion, but the conversations at Glenda had just been the realest. We then had a really good conversation about authenticity and such during rush. I liked the girl but I felt a silent understanding that this was probably not the place for me between us. I left knowing I’d love to come back if I could, but that I probably wouldn’t.

TOTO: Once again, noise outside was a huge issue. I figured clocking another PNM would probably look bad. So I did my best to tune them out. As it was they were discussing the house rankings we would submit at the end of the night. I was appalled at how little people knew. I understood that people weren’t like me and hadn’t spent all summer creeping on GC and soaking up knowledge of all things Greek but seriously, you should know a little something about the water before you plunge headfirst [My biggest and really only criticism about the recruitment process at Oregon is that PNMS could have been given better explanations of how the process worked]. I kept quiet, not wanting to sound condescending, but I felt a GC instinct kick in when they talked about “dropping chapters.” I turned around and explained as patiently as I could that we didn’t get to “drop” anyone, just to rank them and that we could still go back to the houses we put on bottom if one of our tops didn’t call us back. I also commented that with 800 girls going through there was a good chance that most of us would return to less than 7 houses. Most people seemed to agree with this statement. I was thankful to be picked up solo once again. The girl was sweet, although our conversation was pretty much limited to the generic stuff. I could tell she was trying really hard though and I appreciated that. The next girl was similar although I didn’t like her as much. I began to see a pattern in our conversation. “What dorm are you in…that’s awesome! What classes are you taking…that’s awesome! Why are interested in Greek Life…awesome!” I admit I fall victim to such repetitiveness from time to time and I knew the girl was nervous but I was fairly certain this was just not the place for me. As it stood, this house was in line to get a 2 in the rankings though I wouldn’t be upset at all if I got invited back.

DOROTHY: Last but not least. I got to this house hoping that I wouldn’t hate it since I was fairly confident that I knew what my rankings would be right now. Again, there was a girl from my school here and I wondered if she would pick me up. Lightning struck twice: I got picked up with the girl in front of me again. Neither of us had talked about what had happened at Lion, though I felt like there was an unspoken understanding that she had won that battle. We went into a living room which was thankfully a little quieter than most other houses. The girl rushing us seemed like she had done this before and was a lot better at handling two PNMs at a time than the girls at Lion had been. We went through the usual conversation starters, and it was almost laughable since at this point Chuck Norris and I knew each other’s answers. I marveled at her once again. She found a way to spin even the smallest side remarks into an involved conversation. The girl terrified me but I had to respect her: she was a real conversationalist and when it came down to it, that was the name of the game. I was better this time, more assertive and less afraid of cutting her off. What the hell I figured, if I let her dominate the conversation again they’d never get to know me. She seemed surprised by this, but get up with me gamely. This house also took time to introduce their house mother which I thought again was a great touch. We got bumped and went through the “Where are you from, majors, interests” song and dance again. I didn’t like this girl as much as the first and I was a little turned off when the conversation landed on study files and she mentioned how great it was having access to old tests for her classes since the answers hardly ever changed from year to year. I didn’t want to seem like a prude, I was perfectly aware of the existence of study files but I didn’t think what was pretty much cheating was something that should be brought up in rush. I chalked it up to the fact that the girl was a sophomore and it was her first time out on rushing. She really was sweet though, but again, the greater interest was definitely in Chuck Norris. We bumped one last time but barely got a few words in before the party was over.

We all walked back to a big lecture hall to fill out our cards. We could visit up to 7 houses the next round, so we have 7 1s and 2 2s. It wasn’t a hard decision at all. I gave 2s to Lion and Toto, feeling a little bad since the girls had Toto really had been sweet and clearly loved their house. But I knew it was the right decision. I left with anticipation already building for tomorrow…

[TweedleDee199]

Ah, I forgot to include it but the song playing in my head for this round was "Suddenly I See" by KT Tunstall!