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We call it formal recruitment. Technically it's probably partial (ish). On a smaller engineering/architecture campus where there is 1 female to 7 or 8 males and PNMs tend to be VERY introverted it is safety in numbers. Most of these girls would never be greek if they went to a liberal arts school, but here it works and they fit into either chapter. Since Greek life never occured to the majority of them, neither did the financials. Some of it is purely stick shock I assume. On this campus it really IS the truth that if you want to be around other women, you need to be Greek. It's where the women are!
That said, last years quota of 6 was a small year in many ways due to bad pre-recruitment PR. We actually took in an additional 10 girls in COB later in the year and I know the other chapter took in a few from COB also. This year the PR has been better (thanks to a new, amazing greek advisor and a strong Panhellenic!) and our interest is back to where it used to be. We only added quota and total about 4 years ago. In my opnion it was needed. At the time it was added, one chapter had 40 and the other has 12. They really couldn't compete well and there was bad blood between the groups. Last spring one had 30 and the other 33. The system is MUCH more stable and they get along very well. Plus, they are both growing!
Both sororities hold open events together wearing panhellenic shirts just to get the PNMs to realize there are other women on campus. Imagine being the only female in all your classes. That's pretty common. PNMs tend to hybernate because there are so many guys around. These open events are simply to help them get comfortable and though we would love them to come to actual recruitment events, it's really just to make the PNMs feel comfortable on campus in the sea of men. After a few weeks we hold recruitment events, but it's still more relaxed then what other schools do.
I know all this small campus stuff is foreign to the large recruitments out there. I came from a larger system from this myself. The key is it WORKS for this campus. There has been 10 years of trial and error to get this process together and truthfully when you pledge 15-20% of incoming freshmen you aren't doing so bad, you just need to do better. Retention is GOOD! We've had 100% retention for a few years and I know the other chapter has had success retaining too.
Maybe this is just a weird year with funky questions.....looks like my message to my girls will be to gracefully and carefully recommend the PNMs with the concerns wait and COB in spring (if the chapters are below total).
Thanks for the advice!!
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