Let's bring back "rush"

[AXO Alum]

Originally posted by carnation
I don't understand NPC policies either. As I understand it, NPC says new members must be initiated within 8 weeks...however, Chi Omega waits a semester for grades. I wish everyone did....but does that mean that the 8 weeks period isn't an NPC policy?

Oh - I thought initiation schedules were up to the individual group. Our maximum length is 8 weeks, but I thought that was our national policy -- I didn't know that NPC had a schedule too. Strange! Chi Omega is the only group that I know of that waits over the break for grades. I do wish that was the case, because it sucks to initiate and then lose girls for grades the next semester!

I too was a rushee going through rush that later pledged and had a pledge handbook given to us by our pledge mom - I miss that! I was also in the first pledge class at our school to be initiated in one semester. We were initiated the day before reading day -- in other words, the absolute last minute for them to initiate us!

They won't let us call our new women "Pearls" anymore either - its kinda sad for them because all the other groups on campus have a "nickname" for their girls, but ours our just NM.

[33girl]

Originally posted by AGDee
The term "pledge" had to go, in part, because a lot of Universities are starting to NOT recognize any group that has a "pledge process".

Name some, please. And whether or not they are public or private, and whether they kept Greeks after the name was changed.

If a school was going to take that tack they also would have to ban things like freshman orientation and athletic tryouts.

Is there some way to petition the NPC to remove some of these PC terms and change them back to how it was. I may be an ALum Initiate but when i was in college it was RUSH and RUSHEE and PLEDGE and PLEDGE PIN and so on....... hazing is just that hazing ( harm or embarrssement to another) i do not see where a word comes into play to saying it is hazing.

You take away some of these old words and it takes away fromthe legacy these groups formed over thru out the yrs. I mean come on these are big long drawn out words ...they are a mouthful to say......this is just my 2 cents

[Taualumna]

If NPC got rid of the terms "rush", "rushee", "pledge", etc, then why do AGD NMs (collegians, anyway) still get a "pledge pin"? That's what my NM handbook says.

[maggieaxid]

On our campus, I believe it was a max of 6 weeks of the "new member period" before they can be initiated. Pretty much all the GLO's waited until the 6th week to initiate.
I agree with the waiting for grades- especially for those girls who are on the fence with grades anyway. And I also agree with the term "New Member" it connotes the feeling that they are an initiated member. If you don't want to use Pledge, I think they can come up with something else....Thats why I like when orgs use cute names for their "New members" i.e. rosebuds, angels, phi, ect.

[honeychile]

I'm convinced that the new terms are just a way of making alumnae feel old!!

[Taualumna]

Question: if organizations are so concerned about grades, then why don't they make it a national/international rule that one can't go through recruitment until second semester or even sophomre year?

[NutBrnHair]

My understanding is that NPC wanted to change the terminology from "Rush" and "rushee" so we could encourage non-members to join by not using terms that they don't understand. Right?

Well, not only is "Potential New Member" a mouthful, but also it's so cumbersome that we've shortened it to "PNM." (Which I always have to stop and think, so I don't say "PMS!") Do we really think that "PNM" is easier for non-Greeks to understand when I'm sure many don't even know what the letters stand for? I think the term "rushee" was a perfectly good word.

I understand the choice of the word "Recruitment" -- that's easy enough. And certainly I'm glad the term "suicide" is no longer the official term (although "Intentional Single Preference" = "ISP" is kinda the same thing as "PNM" -- cumbersome.)

I'm just afraid that by trying to be "politically correct" we're shooting ourselves in the foot by doing away with terms that were unique to our community. In this day and age, I would think being unique is not such a bad thing.

Trust me, no one makes a greater effort to learn and use the current terms, but the point I want to make is that I think NPC acted hastily in ditching the terms "Rush" and "Rushee." I think there was a study (or probably several) showing that numbers on many campuses were down; therefore, the push was made to change things. I'm not against change, per se, but I think many factors went into the decline in numbers during the '90s (the least of which was semantics).

[Stef the Pef]

You can't kill the old terminology when it's so much easier to remember and say!

Plus, the whole "recruitment" process makes it sound like we're the military or a sports team or something.

I don't quite get the movement towards shorter pledge periods, either. There's a lot of stuff to learn about in those "new member education" sessions and it's a lot easier to get it all down if you have more time (and can spread out pledging activities over a span of time to allow time for, I don't know...school? sleep? eating?).

All the PC-ness seems really silly to me since our campus (and most now) are really strict on what Greeks can and can't get away with to begin with. Even if we wanted to, we couldn't pull all the "Animal House"-style antics and stay on campus for more than 2.5 seconds afterwards. It gets called rush, pledging, etc., because it's easier to say, girls from Greek families grew up knowing the old terms, and few people I know really associate those words with anything negative.

Besides, my pledge period was mostly getting pampered...oh, and getting to wear the awesome green and white ribbon pins (that weren't required of us as pledges, but "encouraged"...haha, wow). But am I the only one nowadays that associates "pledge" = presents?

[33girl]

Originally posted by Taualumna
Question: if organizations are so concerned about grades, then why don't they make it a national/international rule that one can't go through recruitment until second semester or even sophomre year?

I completely agree. This is one of the reasons the NPHC groups do not accept first semester freshmen, and they are absolutely right.

[NutBrnHair]

I also don't have a problem with the term "pledge," as I view the agreement between the organization and the new member as a "mutual pledge."

Also, I don't see that it's a bad thing to have a semester to "wait for grades," for joining the organization as a full member is a life-long decision --

[ASTLuv21]

I would rather be calling it rush, rushee, and pledge. The fraternities on my campus get so damn confused and annoyed just as much as we do (they still call it rush, but it is in the process of changing to be called fraternity recruitment) . I still accidently call the NM's in my sorority pledges and quickly correct myself. When I went through, yeah I was called a NM BUT I wore a PLEDGE pin!!!! Even when I explain ribbons, PLEDGE pin, and badge to PNM, I say the word pledge. Ever since I knew I wanted to join a sorority (senior year of HS I knew I wanted to be in one) I was use to hearing the word rush, rushee, and pledge....not NM, PNM, or recruitment. This is all so annoying.

[DeltAlum]

Not very PC, but to me it will always be Rush and Pledge. Hard to teach old dogs new tricks.

[NutBrnHair]

Also..."pledge" can be a verb.

"I pledged Chi Omega in 1979."

[ISUKappa]

When I was in school, our campus tried really hard to use and get used to the new terminology. I use Recruitment, PNM, etc. . . without really thinking, but I don't feel that the old words were "bad" necessarily. And I think the changes were made during a time when being PC was the biggest concern and some people did have negative connotations associated with the terms "Rush" "Pledge" and what they may possibly insinuate. It's just another example of going to extremes to try and please everyone and make everything as non-offensive as possible.

I was the last group to go through and have a semester-long pledge program in my chapter. It's been a difficult transition to go to the shorter program, and, even five or more years later, we're still trying to work out the kinks in it.