Rho Chi/Gamma Duties - venting

[AlphaSigLana]

I don't think it is a good idea, because opinions can change-- just look at the pnm stories. Some girls didn't really know if a house was for them one day, but the next day they talked to an awesome rusher from the house.
I know that when I was a freshman my PX asked me what I thought of a house and I said I didn't think they liked me and I didn't really like them(bc of that). Well I was dropped the next day. I liked one of the girls that rushed me bc she did a good job of including me(I was double rushed). My PX was a member of this particular house. Of course I don't know if she said anything, they may not have liked me, but it is okay bc they were one of the more expensive houses anyway.

[alphaiota]

to give you all an idea of how terrible breaking the PX rules can be, let's look at what happened to my chapter. we had a bunch of sisters from other chapters come to help us rush. no big deal, in fact we had a blast during rush. we had national reps there to help us and everything. we thought rush was going great until we found out that the PX's were telling all of the PNM's that most of the girls they were meeting weren't really sisters of this chapter and we were just trying to trick them into thinking we were some great chapter. well, partly true, not everyone they talked to was from our chapter, but at some point during every party a sister from our chapter would talk to each rushee. but for the PX's to go and say that really hurt our numbers. we only had 2 girls accept bids from us that year and consequently we ended up having to close our chapter b/c of it.

i don't feel PX's have any right to say anything about the different chapters. it's not their place. and as for telling their chapter about pnm's that were interested or they didnt' like or whatever. that's a bunch of bs as well. i wasn't invited back to AXO during rush b/c my PX was from that chapter and didn't like me. i really liked them and wanted to pursue them, but it didn't happen b/c she didn't like me. so take a hint all you possible or past PX's, it only hurts the greek system, the sororities, and the PNM's to run your mouth. okay, sorry, got a little upset for a minute. but honestly, think about it.

shelley j
sigma k

[texas*princess]

It is very interesting for me to read all about this because I have never experienced anything with PX's before.

I just finished reading a rush thread and the rushee mentioned that one of her PX's told them that a certain sorority had their house taken away because of something illegal they did. I don't find this sort of behavior very nice.

Are the PX's required to answer a question about a specific house?

[sassykd]

Are the problems with recruitment counselors more prevelant at smaller or larger campuses?

I rushed at a small lib/arts school with only for NPC sororites on campus. We all knew each other, had friends in the houses, and didnt' have to worry about "too" much dirty rushing.

Some of the things my school did was to have rotating officers on Panhell. Every four years, your house was President of panhell. Also, nominees for recruitment counselors were made by the individual chapters, and then voted on by all the chapters. For example, three sisters from my house would volunteer to be Rho Chi's, and the other three houses had to vote on who the two would be. This allowed the most "greek" women to be choosen, not the best KD or ABC/XYZ.

As for telling PNM's about house reputations, we embraced ours and laughed it off. The reputations for the four houses were so outdated that they were humorous. There was never any problem with that.

The most important part of recruitment is retention- how many girls go greek. Whether it is your house or hte house down the street, it doesn't matter as long as it provides a positive impact on Greeks everywhere.

Just my thoughts ont he matter.

Melissa

[LeslieAGD]

Amidst all the Rho Chi bashing, I do want to say that there are a lot of wonderful Rho Chis. I was a Rho Chi and I worked with some amazing women that I was glad to befriend and get to know.

[justamom]

LeslieAD, from your past posts, I would never doubt that you set an example ALL Rho Chis should follow!

This is just another facet of the much bigger problem-Dirty Rushing. After the NUMEROUS PMs I recieved, the posts on MY thread, past horror stories and now THIS thread, it is BEYOND obvious that there is a very real problem for Greek system of every size.

We are so concerned with "image" that we don't want to expose our own shortcomings! I listened to the oath the Rho Chis took at LSU. Can they be all that different on other campuses? The opening statements made by SOME are PURE hypocrisy and it's showing itself to exist on so many campuses. I think we should paint a little more clear picture of WHAT dirty rush is to the PNMs (throw out our PC rhetoric) and put some teeth into the penalty for breaking the rule. ALL of these examples are so wrong, it infuriates me to hear they happen! If you can't be held accountable, why CARE?
Why NOT tell a PNM-Honey, if anyone says something bad about another chapter, they are breaking rule 1375 of our code which means their standards stink, their character is lacking and if you join this sorority you will be part of a scum bag group and everyone will know it!
How many would still "dirty rush"? Probably some because they'd know there was NOTHING Greek Affairs could/would do about it!

[shadokat]

I never really thought of hurting PNMs by talking to your chapter as a PX, but that makes sense. I just can't believe the blatant disregard that these PXs at this university I was at had for the rules. And to be so hideously UNpanhellenic...just really irked me. I didn't mean to say that all PXs are bad, because they aren't!! There are many wonderful women who take it very seriously and do an outstanding job. It's just a shame that these girls couldn't do the same. And it obviously goes on at other places too, from the responses here. Maybe it's an issue we all need to take to our Panhellenics!!!

[justamom]

shadokat, I told my daughter to say NOTHING to ANYONE! I remember a post that jokingly admitted as a Rho Chi when she found out who a top PNM really liked, she would either sneak back to her house or place a call and tell someone in the chapter. (Can't remember who-don't want to know)
Maybe it's just one of those "facts of life" that we all have to learn to work around. No matter where you go, what you do, there will ALWAYS be people trying to get the upper hand, the edge so to speak. As long as people in the position of power are suspect (and that includes everyone from a chapter's officers to alums) nothing can change.
When you can't get people to abide by the rules of any given "society" out of character and good conscience, then you
MUST turn to a method of penalization that hurts more than a slap on the wrist.

[sbhill2]

Justamom - your point is good and i can see it clearly. however, I still think that PXs need to do a better job as a recruitment counselor to PNMs and not a liason between PNMs and their chapter. I have two experiences w/ PXs and both were compltely wonderful girls who tried to make sure the girls in her group were making good decisions on all chapters. its a shame it goes on like it did there but in defense, its going to happen sooner or later even though it shouldnt. to all potential PXs: completly dissaffialte w/ your chapter until bid day so that everyone has the same shot at the same chapters.

[Opie25]

As a greek advisor, I know unfortunately that things like this do happen for both the men and women in recruitment...you think the ladies have it bad...you should hear some of the things the mens groups say/do.

One thing that I would do...and I don't know the specifics of the campus you are talking about, is to notify the greek advisor, student activities office, or some other impartial party that is hopefully overseeing this process. What some have described would indeed be recruitment violations, so those individuals, and those chapters need to be held acountable for their bad/wrong behavior.

I don't know 1) if there is a Greek Advisor, or 2) what the relationship is like with that individual if there is one...but they would definately (I hope) want to be aware of this situation, so they could put a stop to it now, and make some valid assesments for change for the next year.

Thanks for listening.

[shadokat]

Opie--

Unfortunately, the Greek Advisor heard what was said and did nothing. This greek advisor is horrible, so nothing was going to be done. Last year, one sorority had 6 recruitment infractions filed against them, and NOTHING happened.

[MoxieGrrl]

I find it very sad that poor PXs are resulting in some of the experiences described here....especially chapter's closing!

My suggestion for Greek Life Coordinators is to get PXs from neighboring universities that do not belong to chapters of the GLOs on your campus. Or pull them from GC Seriously, I feel that I could say nice, generally educated things about every PHC sorority to a PNM.

(PX, PNM, GLO, PHC....four acronyms in one post..whooo! )

[chideltjen]

the Rho Gammas on our campus are basically the members of PHC Board. (Except us since we don't participate in formal recruitment.) FOrmal recruitment begins this weekend but we had a small orientation the weekend before school starts for new frosh and transfers to check out all the organizations and campus activities. One of the more popular seminars was the "Go Greek" seminar. There was a rep from PHC, IFC, and the GA, and I think someone from an NPHC org. We weren't asked to have a rep from our group to say something about locals on campus so everything the new students heard came from the others.

Someone asked a question about locals in the seminar. THe PHC member said that the local organization on campus was a sorority without any rules (i am sure she meant we don't follow typical PHC bylaws, but many thought she meant locals were running wild on campus) AND the thing that really pissed our girls off was she said that the local sorority on campus was becoming national. We have no, NONE, intention of bringing another national org on campus nor becoming national ourselves. (We opened up a chapter at another school, which may have brought up that topic.) But we had PNMs walking up to us and asking us "So what do they mean that you guys don't have rules?" or "If I join now, are you gonna be something else later?"

If you are going to try and represent all organizations, make sure you have your facts straight before you speak... that's all.

I'm spent.

[newsun]

I hope Tom E. doesn't get a hold of this thread, he would just have a field day as to the whole point of whether there is really a need for such rush people!

Almost all the women going through rush are "adults", shouldn't we start treating them like adults. Think about it this way, if there is a good open house/overview of the Greek system and detail information on each group, before the recruitment parties, is there really a need for Rho Chis?

And the whole thing about saying bad things about other groups that is not dirty rushing it is saying bad things about other groups, and should be reported to the Panhel officer/judiciary not the Greek Advisor. Hello, isn't the whole point of having a Panhel is to promote Greek life. If the Panhel officers will not do anything, then its time to report to your nationals and NPC.

[FuzzieAlum]

Part of what Rho Chis do is simply administrative. If you have a group of women who need to go to different parties all over a campus they barely know, it's helpful to have a guide physically show you where they are. And then when it's time to bid, they explain how it works, for example. If you present all the info up front, some of it will be lost before the end of the process.

They also take some work off the Greek Life Office/Panhel's hands. Issuing invitations, talking to girls who are being cut, and telling girls they didn't get bids is very time-consuming.

The rest of the duties evolved out of that. There's no reason a Rho Chi has to take you all out to dinner. But if a Rho Chi is there, it's inevitable that sooner or later someone is going to ask her a question or look for moral support.