Indiana University 2014 Recruitment

[Dtjb]

Originally Posted by Mom64

Indiana is a HUGE school. As an incoming freshman you spend a good portion of your first semester becoming friends with those living on your floor/quad/neighborhood and classes. These are by majority freshman as well. There were little if no pre-recruitment activities, so little chance to get to know people who will vouch for you.

I believe that everything happens for a reason and that my daughter will be just fine. I also believe that sometimes processes need to be reevaluated for the good of everyone. I think that Indiana's rush process needs to be rethought.

Again, all can vent as much as they want but I attended Indiana, participated in the process, and had a fabulous Greek experience. It's an amazing school qnd a great Greek system regardless of the process. I went thru rush not having any connections and not being a legacy and it worked out great for me. I'm tired of hearing all the negative. Sounds to me like unless "all get a bid" it's not going to be fair to the moms. There's nothing special about some thing that everyone can just get. If that's how Alabama does it then it must not be all that special to be in a house and I question how close a "house" of 200 women could be if they take these enormous pledge classes. Furthermore, if there's anyone out there that would think an IU cheerleader would not have a better chance of getting a bid to a house regardless of being present, is living in a dream world. Activities/ resume matter and that will gain big points for houses recruiting girls. I get parents hurt for their kids, but much of what I'm reading is the mentality of "everyone should get a trophy and everyone should get a prize and everyone should win" which is proving to be not very real-world. Lots of competition out there...not everyone is going to get in. That doesn't make the process unfair, it makes it competitive.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by kchaptergphib

I really want to take everyone from the (housed) house corp boards at IU and shake them. Seriously, alumnae, make some better decisions for the health of the entire system! There is no good reason to set quotas so artificially low. None. You can figure out a way to keep your physical house afloat with fewer than 75% of your members living in, I promise you.

But they can't keep their house afloat if women don't join because they don't want to be part of a chapter that bucks a system. This is kind of like telling a chapter at Ole Miss "This whole wearing dresses on game day thing is stupid and costs too much for dry cleaning. Stop doing it." or telling a chapter at {insert frilly rush school here} that excessive rush decorations are ridiculous and need to be discontinued immediately. Those things would negatively affect rush numbers, I'm sure.

A culture change like this has to be a decision that ALL the chapters make together. Either that, or one of the most exclusive chapters has to decide to make the change and show that they still have the close sisterhood.

BadCat25 is right, the trustees of the university are the ones who need to change this. That way, the headquarters of the sororities can pretend they're aghast that their rights as independent organizations are being taken away (even though they will all be doing a Myposian Dance Of Joy) and avoid having alumnae or actives yelling at them.

The problem is, from what everyone has posted, the university LIKES that the Greek system is such a mess since that keeps it from getting stronger. This is where it comes down to $$$. Parents, do as AXORushAdvisor did, and vote with your checkbook. Too bad it will take a couple thousand of you to make a dent.

[suzy88]

Originally Posted by Dtjb

Again, all can vent as much as they want but I attended Indiana, participated in the process, and had a fabulous Greek experience. It's an amazing school qnd a great Greek system regardless of the process. I went thru rush not having any connections and not being a legacy and it worked out great for me. I'm tired of hearing all the negative. Sounds to me like unless "all get a bid" it's not going to be fair to the moms. There's nothing special about some thing that everyone can just get. If that's how Alabama does it then it must not be all that special to be in a house and I question how close a "house" of 200 women could be if they take these enormous pledge classes. Furthermore, if there's anyone out there that would think an IU cheerleader would not have a better chance of getting a bid to a house regardless of being present, is living in a dream world. Activities/ resume matter and that will gain big points for houses recruiting girls. I get parents hurt for their kids, but much of what I'm reading is the mentality of "everyone should get a trophy and everyone should get a prize and everyone should win" which is proving to be not very real-world. Lots of competition out there...not everyone is going to get in. That doesn't make the process unfair, it makes it competitive.

Thank you for informing most of the women on this forum that there sorority experience wasn't special because their college made a practice of finding a home for most young women who wanted to participate.

[Griffins&Quills]

Originally Posted by suzy88

Thank you for informing most of the women on this forum that there sorority experience wasn't special because their college made a practice of finding a home for most young women who wanted to participate.

2nd!
And Dtjb, talk to the kids at Alabama. Pretty sure their rush is damn competitive, and they still have a system that functions.

[33girl]

As I've stated before, this begins with a northern vs southern thing. For the most part, northern schools will have 20 chapters of 100 rather than 10 chapters of 200. IU of course takes it to the extreme.

[Titchou]

I have no clue how this got slanted to house corporations being an issue. If there are 100 beds in the house and 100 members or 300 members, there are ways to insure the house is filled. That argument holds no water.

The problem is that Greek life is very popular these days. So the number of PNMs goes up. Other schools have learned how to accomodate that - note the number of new Greek villages and the explosion of houses at Alabama, etc. Indiana refuses to adapt. That's the bottom line. Their President needs to step in if PH won't do it on their own.

[TAMUAlphaPhi]

Originally Posted by Dtjb

Again, all can vent as much as they want but I attended Indiana, participated in the process, and had a fabulous Greek experience. It's an amazing school qnd a great Greek system regardless of the process. I went thru rush not having any connections and not being a legacy and it worked out great for me. I'm tired of hearing all the negative. Sounds to me like unless "all get a bid" it's not going to be fair to the moms. There's nothing special about some thing that everyone can just get. If that's how Alabama does it then it must not be all that special to be in a house and I question how close a "house" of 200 women could be if they take these enormous pledge classes. Furthermore, if there's anyone out there that would think an IU cheerleader would not have a better chance of getting a bid to a house regardless of being present, is living in a dream world. Activities/ resume matter and that will gain big points for houses recruiting girls. I get parents hurt for their kids, but much of what I'm reading is the mentality of "everyone should get a trophy and everyone should get a prize and everyone should win" which is proving to be not very real-world. Lots of competition out there...not everyone is going to get in. That doesn't make the process unfair, it makes it competitive.

I'm offended on so many levels -- particularly for all the sorority members/alumnae who endured those sorority experiences that are "nothing special."

I don't think I've seen anyone in this thread advocate for a system where every PNM gets what they want or even just finds a place. What I see is women who are struggling with a system that places a significantly lower percentage of PNMs than others.

After days of debate, I still haven't heard a compelling explanation of why a system that works on almost every other campus won't work at IU. Lack of off-campus housing options adds an interesting complication, but the students who don't participate in Greek life (either by choice, because they just aren't a good fit for Greek life or because they were "victims" of IU's low quotas) seem to make it work.

[Maman]

Originally Posted by 33girl

BadCat25 is right, the trustees of the university are the ones who need to change this. That way, the headquarters of the sororities can pretend they're aghast that their rights as independent organizations are being taken away (even though they will all be doing a Myposian Dance Of Joy) and avoid having alumnae or actives yelling at them.

How can the admissions committee and the BOT not realize that this established 'recruitment process' diminishes their accepted applicant pool? It also impacts their Autumn Fund from Alumni.

[Hoosierxgirl]

Maybe this is the wrong time to bring this up but I've been thinking today about what adding 20-30 more women to my pledge class would have done to my experience. I'm sure it would've been mostly positive - more women to get to know, more diversity, etc. Then I started to think about all the logistics - risk management, planning events, etc. Even silly things like chapter meetings. Where would we put another 70-100 girls (if each pledge class was increased)? Would it be responsible to have our risk management chair and Exec board in charge of another 100 women? Some of the chapters at IU are already some of the largest chapters of their respective GLO - I just wonder if the current infrastructure of our chapters would be able to support a dramatic increase in membership. I guess it would be done over time but I think these are considerations that need to be made. I'd be lying if I didn't acknowledge that a lot of resistance to change at IU is because of the exclusivity factor of recruitment - if you happen to make it through the Games, you consider yourself a survivor and expect the same selection process of future pledge classes.

Like I said before, I know how heartbreaking this process is. It's not fair but I also don't know how much else can be done to expand the current size of chapters under a quota system.

[cinder1965]

Originally Posted by Titchou

I have no clue how this got slanted to house corporations being an issue. If there are 100 beds in the house and 100 members or 300 members, there are ways to insure the house is filled. That argument holds no water.

The problem is that Greek life is very popular these days. So the number of PNMs goes up. Other schools have learned how to accomodate that - note the number of new Greek villages and the explosion of houses at Alabama, etc. Indiana refuses to adapt. That's the bottom line. Their President needs to step in if PH won't do it on their own.

So agree, I stated earlier...we have live outs and have had no problem keeping our house filled. The housing corp board has to manage it and make sure all of the numbers add up, etc. but as I said before, it is NOT brain surgery.

[TriDeltaSallie]

Originally Posted by Dtjb

Again, all can vent as much as they want but I attended Indiana, participated in the process, and had a fabulous Greek experience. It's an amazing school qnd a great Greek system regardless of the process. I went thru rush not having any connections and not being a legacy and it worked out great for me. I'm tired of hearing all the negative. Sounds to me like unless "all get a bid" it's not going to be fair to the moms. There's nothing special about some thing that everyone can just get. If that's how Alabama does it then it must not be all that special to be in a house and I question how close a "house" of 200 women could be if they take these enormous pledge classes. Furthermore, if there's anyone out there that would think an IU cheerleader would not have a better chance of getting a bid to a house regardless of being present, is living in a dream world. Activities/ resume matter and that will gain big points for houses recruiting girls. I get parents hurt for their kids, but much of what I'm reading is the mentality of "everyone should get a trophy and everyone should get a prize and everyone should win" which is proving to be not very real-world. Lots of competition out there...not everyone is going to get in. That doesn't make the process unfair, it makes it competitive.

Well, that pretty much sums up what most of us have come to believe about the attitude of women in the IU Greek system.

Why any woman who wants to be Greek would ever consider IU is beyond me. There are SO MANY excellent schools with strong Greek systems... Why in the world would you subject yourself to this?

And that Rho Gamma better be reported. I cannot believe she would say something like that.

Actually, I can. This is Indiana, a school I have really lost respect for over the past few years. (No offense to the few women on here from IU who recognize the problems at their school, but wow. What a mess.)

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by Hoosierxgirl

Some of the chapters at IU are already some of the largest chapters of their respective GLO

I...can't think of a single chapter for which that is true.

[Dtjb]

It just makes no sense to me. Everyone wants every girl to get a bid? Where does that happen? Second, I'm defending the idea that something that is competitive is not easy and not always unfair. Does everyone get THE job? Does everyone get into pt school, or the graduate program they want? No-it's competitive, selective, and makes something more desire able and something special. If you want to read it as "I don't think your experience was special" then that's your choice. But it is real life. If all that matters is everyone gets a spot then girls have to go somewhere where they just sign up and get assigned a spot. If there are 2,000 girls and 2,000 spaces it still wouldn't happen bc moms are saying their daughters don't want the unhoused chapters bc they're not "good enough" and yet they want a place for everyone. What they are saying is they want every girl to get what they consider to be a "good house". Well, if they think it's a "good house", chances are so do lots of other girls and so it's competitive and harder to get in. If it wasn't would their daughters want to be in it so badly? If every freshman that decided they wanted to be an ABC, could easily just sign up and become one would it be coveted? I just don't get the mentality of "all girls should get in if they want". That's unrealistic and impossible anywhere for anything.

[carnation]

Originally Posted by Hoosierxgirl

I'd be lying if I didn't acknowledge that a lot of resistance to change at IU is because of the exclusivity factor of recruitment - if you happen to make it through the Games, you consider yourself a survivor and expect the same selection process of future pledge classes.

:

[Maman]

Are all the Alabama housing costs subsidized by the university, fully supported by national, or do the current members bear the burden of the cost? Specifically questioning about the newly built houses.

Checking back through IU history via the internet and it seems that one of the larger 'housed' sororities didn't meet quota.

There seem to be plenty of questions about the IU process.