Guaranteed Placement, any thoughts?

[sugar and spice]

I think AlphaXiGirl summed it up well: this situation will work very well at a school where all chapters are strong. At schools where the chapters are all very different in strength this would probably not be a good idea.

Also, keep in mind that this is a very different system than the one that guarantees placement for ALL rushees -- that system is only in place at one or two schools in the U.S.

[MSKKG]

What happens if all her choices are of equal size and all made quota? I can see where this would only benefit the larger groups. My personal opinion is that no one should be guaranteed a bid, no matter how well they "played by the rules."

[AlphaXiGirl]

On a campus where the largest chapters are 212+ and the smallest chapter is 80ish, it is unlikely that all of her choices would be exactly the same size - however, if that were to happen I believe she would be given the chapter that she listed highest... I think that would be the tie breaker.

[DGMarie]

Originally posted by OUlioness01
actually they sit down on bid day for hours and just trade them, at least that's how it works at my school. it's like, "ok you can have those two if i can have this one..." and so on. it's usually advisors i think who do all the snap bidding. it's kinda hard to hear that, but that's the case. i wasn't a snap bid but i remember being relaly upset when i heard that.

So are you any the wiser on bid day if you were one of the ones at the top, bottom or placed last minute on the list? And would anyone dare to tell you? For snap bidding, could this ever be a house that cut you that snap bids you, or only a house you cut? Curious.

[AggieDZ]

Originally posted by carnation
(hijack)--There are plenty of sleazy women I would not want to wear the letters "Pi Beta Phi". Likewise women who'll destroy the chapter gradepoints because they refuse to study. One thing about being around a few years--you learn that positive peer pressure at college age rarely works but you do see a lot of students being dragged down by negative peer pressure from whatever source. Creeds and symphonies notwithstanding, a woman should be worthy of wearing our letters and we shouldn't feel the need to be social workers and drag someone out of the gutter. Thank you!

(unhijack)

These are the kind of strong feelings that should be voiced EARLY on in the recruitment process and followed through by EARLY cutting. *IF* everyone played by the rules, the system would work.

[Kristin AGD]

Originally posted by AlphaXiGirl
The way that guaranteed placement works at UT - Austin is this:

A PNM that "plays by the rules"... she accepts the maximum number of invitations she receives for each event up to the limit for that round AND puts the maximum number of chapters on her preference card up to the number of preference parties she attended... she will be placed with one of those chapters.

It main goal is to keep "cross cutting" to a minimum.

She will not be placed with a group that she did not put on her pref card. Nor will she be placed with a chapter where she was not invited to their preference.

IF she is not matched through the normal bid matching process, she will be hand matched with the smallest group on her pref card.

PROS:
More women are matched!

CONS:
PNMS have learned to play the game... if you don't want to be placed with a group... make sure they release you before preference. More and more PNMs are rude to chapters hoping to be released from them....

Word of advice - don't do it. I know of at least three situations where women attempted this not knowing that membres of their "favorite" chapter were good friends with women of the chapter where they were rude. Competitive or not, the sorority women at UT all have good friends in other chapters... in the three situations I know of - word traveled quickly to the "favorite" chapter and the women were released from not just the chapter where they were rude, but three or four other chapters that got wind of the behavior.

Another con:
Guaranteed placement helps the middle sized chapters - chapters that are usually already at or above total on this campus... and has no benefit at all to the smaller chapters or chapters that don't make quota. One year, one of the mid sized chapters reached quota (51) + Junior Quota (3) + Guaranteed Placements of (9) = 63, while one chapter only matched 28 women.... the larger chapters only pledged 51 + 3 because, remember, guaranteed placed women go to the smallest of the chapters on their pref card.

My opinion is that GP simply widens the gap between chapter sizes. Whether or not that out weighs the benefit of matching more women - I can see it both ways. Luckily all 14 chapters at UT are strong and a few GPs isn't going to make or break anyone at this time. It's been about 5 years since UT lost a chapter but before that the campus averaged losing one chapter every two years or so.

AlphaXiGirl thanks for explaining that so well. I just didn't get how it works.

[Munchkin03]

I had read the website and its definition of GP, so I knew *what* it was, I was hoping for someone with connections to UT (either a student, alum, or advisor) to explain how it works in PRACTICE, not in THEORY. It sounds really good on paper, but I can imagine how PNMs learn how to play the game, so to speak.

[kkgatusc]

I agree that GP increases the divide between chapter size. For example, this past year at Carolina, quota was 60. One chapter only pledged 10 women, another 40, and yet, with GP, girls that preffed larger houses wound up with pledge classes of up to 69! thats 59 more women than the smallest chapter. So the smallest chapter went up to 70 women, whereas the largest went up to over 170! Sororities at USC understand that if we invite a woman to preference, that she could end up on our bid list. We make heavy cuts during the early rounds, but our huge focus is the round before pref.

[MSKKG]

We at USC have also heard how some of the GLOs would advise the PNMs how to "beat the system." This is another way the larger chapters keep getting larger. I guess the PNMs don't realize they have been victims of dirty rushing until AFTER they are members!

[bruinaphi]

Most schools with GP add the NM's as quota additions which aren't supposed to exceed a specific percentage of quote (most schools use 10% as I believe is recommended by the Greenbook -- but don't have my GB in front of me so don't quote me).

Ther eis a difference b/w Guaranteed Bidding and Guaranteed Placement. Under a Guaranteed Bidding system the chapters must place all women who go through recruitment. There are only a few schools that do this across the country. Creighton University is an example of one.

Guaranteed Placement, as described well above, doesn't really allow the PNMs to mess with the system at all. It is FAIR. If a woman goes through rush and attends all of the parties she is invited to she should be matched to one of the chapters she preferences. If the chapters are carrying too many people at preference and get too large of pledge classes then the greek advisor needs to look at the release figure methodology. The PNMs should not be punished b/c the release figures were not done correctly.

[pinkyphimu]

do many schools have problems with chapters not sticking to release figures? i know when i was a collegiate, my school definately did!!! the "top" houses consistantly didn't drop women...as in, everyone was invited back. for second round, you could only attend 3/4 parties, so all of these women would drop the smallest house (mine). the chapters would cut a few women before 3rd party and cut more before pref, but they were no longer receiving invites from us. i know that there are lots of problems with the lack of following NPC rules, but why isn't it more important to all chapters to follow the release figures. it is better for everyone in the long run. is it some kind of ego trip for the larger chapters???

[bruinaphi]

There are schools where following release figures is a big issue. I've worked with several of my chapters on CPH rules that state that chapters cannot invite more PNMs than the GA says, but if they want to go under that number it is their perogative (sp?).

[houstonchica]

Is it correct then that if you are invited to just one pref party and you attend that one party that you are guaranteed a bid as long as you have attended the maximum number or parties each day?

[KappaKittyCat]

Originally posted by houstonchica
Is it correct then that if you are invited to just one pref party and you attend that one party that you are guaranteed a bid as long as you have attended the maximum number or parties each day?

I would think so, but I'm curious to know how this works in practice.

Lauradav and Pinkyphimu, what is the deal with people not following the rules? I thought that release figures were something that CPH could enforce pretty easily. I mean, how is "You may only invite X% of these women back to your next set" unclear? Are there fines if the chapters exceed the max?

*grumblegrumblebigchapteregotripsgrumblegrumble*

[sugar and spice]

Originally posted by houstonchica
Is it correct then that if you are invited to just one pref party and you attend that one party that you are guaranteed a bid as long as you have attended the maximum number or parties each day?

That's my interpretation of it . . . and it sounds like for some girls, who get cut from most of their favorites after the first round, this might even be the desired effect. Let's say that after first round, they're left with one sorority they love and the rest they don't even want to consider . . . if they can get the ones they don't like to drop them, they might end up with ONLY the house they love on Pref night and thus be guaranteed a bid. And the way that they would manage that would be by being really rude to the girls at the houses they don't want.