Tent Talk & "Bottom-Tier" Houses

[LAblondeGPhi]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Other things that can be done to relieve tent talk: REVISE A TOO HIGH TOTAL. For the love of all that's holy. If your total is 150 and no one has been over 110 in 5 years, of course that's going to contribute to a bunch of worried and stressed out girls - and stress coming out in non-Panhellenic ways. Thankfully NPC has been more on the ball about this in recent years.

Originally Posted by MaryPoppins

When you have gigantic house totals that just keep going up, then ALL of the houses have catty, immature, mean members to some extent. Staying on message, and a positive message, is the only way to combat that either internally or externally and stay true to our principles and values.

Yes. I think when most of the chapters on campus are under total, the Panhellenic environment becomes very competitive year-round as chapters are vying for PNMs via COB. It's easier for chapters to be nice to each other when they each feel secure in their individual situations.

However, I think members of the non-Greek and fraternity community are contributing to tent talk just as much, if not more, than the sororities themselves. From my collegiate experience, the most blatant examples of PNMs being told "these chapters suck, and these chapters are the only ones you should consider" came from fraternity men talking to freshman over the summer or in their first days on campus.

I think it's natural for PNMs who don't know any better to ask what chapters are good to join - after all, they just went through the college selection process where they took into account prestige of university, tuition costs, "Fit", etc.

Things that I think help:
1) Holding recruitment right when PNMs get to campus, so they have minimal time to absorb tent talk
2) Discouraging talking, texting, etc. between recruitment parties (tricky though it is)
3) Coordinating with IFC to encourage an "All Greek Together" policy - I don't know if this would mean a carrot or stick approach, or maybe both. I'm sure plenty of fraternities would like the sorority women to keep their mouths shut about reputation, too.
4) Better "expectations" programming during the orientation process. There was another thread about adjusting PNMs expectations, and maybe it could help.
5) Perhaps the Greek Advisor could make a concerted effort to subtly "talk up" the chapters that typically perform less well during recruitment to the PNMs. Or maybe present a little information about each chapter that shows each group in an amazing light - highlighting awards, involvement in on campus activities, fundraising totals, etc.