Releasing all Pledges

[navane]

Originally Posted by SuzyInMD

If Alpha Alpha had dropped out of formal recruitment their PNMs would have received bids from other sororities because these women were seeing the rush process to conclusion, correct?

Unfortunately, no. There is still the possibility of a PNM getting dropped by all of the chapters prior to preference. For the women who only had Alpha Alpha left, they would have been left with no parties to attend for preference. Thus, no bid.

My opinion is Alpha Alpha acted irresponsibly and callously, and the remaining sororities on campus aren't doing anything to assist these women.

I would urge you to consider more compassion for Alpha Alpha. The chapter members are probably devastated to lose their new member class and lose their chapter. They likely gave all they had in a last ditch effort to save their sisterhood. They may have felt desperate in the sense of hoping beyond hope that they could pull out enough new members to keep the chapter open. Perhaps, too, Alpha Alpha headquarters wanted very much for the chapter to pull up a win at this year's recruitment and was pained to make the decision to close when the numbers didn't come up.

What an awful position to be and my heart goes out to those young ladies.

[33girl]

Can we change the title of this thread to all pledges/new members released? I was really confused.

I also would be really careful in assuming the released girls were there because it was “all they could get.” That kind of thinking is a big contributor to why chapters end up closing in the first place.

Plus the 25 women may be thinking of themselves as a package deal - take all of us or none.

[SuzyInMD]

Originally Posted by navane

Unfortunately, no. There is still the possibility of a PNM getting dropped by all of the chapters prior to preference. For the women who only had Alpha Alpha left, they would have been left with no parties to attend for preference. Thus, no bid.




I would urge you to consider more compassion for Alpha Alpha. The chapter members are probably devastated to lose their new member class and lose their chapter. They likely gave all they had in a last ditch effort to save their sisterhood. They may have felt desperate in the sense of hoping beyond hope that they could pull out enough new members to keep the chapter open. Perhaps, too, Alpha Alpha headquarters wanted very much for the chapter to pull up a win at this year's recruitment and was pained to make the decision to close when the numbers didn't come up.

What an awful position to be and my heart goes out to those young ladies.

I have compassion for the undergraduate chapter members, my opinion was about the National organization, not the undergraduate chapter. My understanding from my daughter and messages parents have posted on social media, is the undergraduate chapter members were not aware of its status with the National organization. Yes, my heart also breaks for the current undergraduates.

[FSUZeta]

Originally Posted by SuzyInMD

I have compassion for the undergraduate chapter members, my opinion was about the National organization, not the undergraduate chapter. My understanding from my daughter and messages parents have posted on social media, is the undergraduate chapter members were not aware of its status with the National organization. Yes, my heart also breaks for the current undergraduates.

I call foul that they had no idea they were in a precarious position. Nationals lose money when they have to close chapters and ordinarily, when a chapter is closed, Nationals has previously sent leadership consultants, regional, and national officers to lend a hand and offer guidance. Goals and deadlines are set. There is also correspondence from Nationals to the chapter, so if this did not happen with this chapter, unless this was a serious risk management issue, which is the only incident that might get a chapter closed down without notice, I don’t think you or your daughter have gotten the whole story.

[SuzyInMD]

Originally Posted by FSUZeta

I call foul that they had no idea they were in a precarious position. Nationals lose money when they have to close chapters and ordinarily, when a chapter is closed, Nationals has previously sent leadership consultants, regional, and national officers to lend a hand and offer guidance. Goals and deadlines are set. There is also correspondence from Nationals to the chapter, so if this did not happen with this chapter, unless this was a serious risk management issue, which is the only incident that might get a chapter closed down without notice, I don’t think you or your daughter have gotten the whole story.

I am sure I don't have the whole story. However, if the chapter was aware of its situation, that bolsters the point I made in my original post. Why were bids extended, then the new members released two weeks later? Weren't National and chapter advisors looking at the numbers during rush if the chapter's situation was that precarious? The timing prevented the new members from receiving bids from other chapters, receiving snap bids and participating in COB which most chapters had completed by the time the new members were informed they were being released. I understand closing a chapter is painful for the active members, but the timing negatively impacted the 25 new members. It was not a risk management issue.

[carnation]

I get the impression that many of the girls only had Alpha Alpha left anyway, which means they would have been bidless had AA not participated.

I don't know how much the AA chapter knew about their situation. Nationals could have come in there with all kinds of physical and other help and maybe AA thought, "We can do this!" But it didn't happen and Nationals looked at the bottom line and said it wasn't going to work.

One good thing was that they released all the girls before initiation. It would have been horrible if they had kept them until then, knowing that they then wouldn't have had other options. In no way should the other groups been forced to pledge the newly released girls, though, especially if they had been cut by the other groups already.