How long is your silence period?

[aephi alum]

We used to observe strict silence throughout rush. During my freshman and sophomore years, sisters couldn't talk to PNMs, even to explain that they weren't allowed to talk to them. Later, that rule was relaxed a bit, so you could at least explain why you couldn't talk to them (except between pref and bid day).

As a sister, you could get an exception for a particular PNM if you already knew her from outside school. You could talk to people on your exception list as long as you didn't talk about your sorority or rush in general. I think you also had to avoid talking to them between pref and bid distribution.

We didn't have a "freshman dorm" or "rush dorm" or anything, so you could (and did) have PNMs and sisters (and even rho chis) in the same suite. Things could get interesting: "Bill, can you do me a favor and ask Sue if I can borrow her hair dryer?"