Recs being dropped for PNMs?

[honeychile]

Originally Posted by shadokat

What's the difference if you drop entrance exam requirements, or you have requirements and then admit 90% of the people anyways? At least they're a little transparent about it. PA State Schools have been admitting anything with a pulse, outside of West Chester, for ages. It's sad.

I remember back in the day, one of my pledge sisters was working in the admissions office at Pitt. She showed me the applications of a couple of athletes, with SAT scores between 420-440. You get 400 points for signing your name.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by Phi in Dubai!

Kappa Alpha Theta is now allowing anyone to write a letter of recommendation for a PNM.

https://www.kappaalphatheta.org/members/introduce-pnm

Again, I hope that they are being sure to expressly educate the collegiate chapters on these changes or there are going to be a hell of a lot of confused girls reading rec letters from Jim and Fred.

[SWTXBelle]

Gamma Phi Beta has dropped recommendations and will now accept letters of recommendation from anyone. The new form should be released on 5/17.

[AGDee]

Obviously, nobody can give information about membership selection (and I'm not even privy to that information anymore since I retired from volunteering), but just because anybody can write a rec doesn't mean all recs are assessed equally. Since anybody can do a rec for a PNM for Alpha Gamma Delta now, anybody can view what information is included in a rec. We call it a recruitment information form, not a recommendation (and that's been true as long as I've been a member). It's just data- name, basic info, transcripts, resume info.

I know recs are a big deal in the SEC. MOST schools in my area have no idea what to do with one when/if they get one. I think that's true for most schools in the country. They are extremely rare and were usually used only for legacies up here in the Great Lakes area. The one exception would be Indiana. Even where they are used, all the same information is on the transcript and resume that they have to submit for recruitment. They get into college based on recommendation letters that could have been written by anybody. Sure, there are anecdotes about particular instances where a 'no rec' was done and it was a good thing, but there are a gazillion instances where a member has to be suspended because of her behavior even though she had a glowing rec from some alumna who may or may not have even met her.

Maybe not the popular opinion here, but probably the realistic opinion up north.

[AnchorAlumna]

It's glaringly obvious when you get a rec from someone who doesn't know the candidate.
Check your Constitution or bylaws, wherever you have the rules for who is a candidate for membership and the process for joining. More than likely you'll find a requirement in there a girl is supposed to have a rec in hand before you issue a bid.
When I've worked with chapters that don't use recs, that little requirement has, in the distant past, been conveniently ignored and dropped out of use.
Used correctly, a recommendation can be a huge help in giving a chapter a preview of a candidate's personality and character. That insight, coupled with in-person meeting, helps the chapter determine if the candidate is a fit or not.
Otherwise, it's just checking off a box and a bunch of busywork.
In addition to helping the chapter, it involves the alumnae and makes them feel like their input is valued. That's really nice when you want to be involved but don't live close enough to a chapter or campus to help.
I've always thought the most valuable recs aren't the ones lauding the merits of a great student. The most valuable are those warning of a disaster ahead!

[AnchorAlumna]

Originally, PNMs were never supposed to get their own recs....that's the responsibility of the chapter.
But with 2200 PNMs, you'd have to have all chapter members working full-time all summer to get recs on everyone. You just about HAVE to encourage PNMs to find their own.
Maybe when the numbers coming through drop, things will settle down a bit.

[honeychile]

Originally Posted by AnchorAlumna

It's glaringly obvious when you get a rec from someone who doesn't know the candidate.
Check your Constitution or bylaws, wherever you have the rules for who is a candidate for membership and the process for joining. More than likely you'll find a requirement in there a girl is supposed to have a rec in hand before you issue a bid.
When I've worked with chapters that don't use recs, that little requirement has, in the distant past, been conveniently ignored and dropped out of use.
Used correctly, a recommendation can be a huge help in giving a chapter a preview of a candidate's personality and character. That insight, coupled with in-person meeting, helps the chapter determine if the candidate is a fit or not.
Otherwise, it's just checking off a box and a bunch of busywork.
In addition to helping the chapter, it involves the alumnae and makes them feel like their input is valued. That's really nice when you want to be involved but don't live close enough to a chapter or campus to help.
I've always thought the most valuable recs aren't the ones lauding the merits of a great student. The most valuable are those warning of a disaster ahead!

For real, on both counts.

[carnation]

See, here's what fries my mind:

If Pi Phi was looking for a handy way to drop the problem of having more legacies than spots in new member classes, the way to do that and manage to infuriate loyal alums was to drop all legacy privileges, then claim they were doing it in the name of diversity. Virtue signaling at its worst--loads of money and alum support were lost, plus diversity is likely to go down as chapters won't want to pledge women whom they know nothing about.

If they were hoping to solve the problem of recruitment committees having to read hundreds of recs by announcing that all recs were out the window but claiming it was "so that they could increase diversity", they blew it again. I actually had some idiot tell me that the idea was that no one would know any woman at all until she walked through the door on the first day. Chapters are now doing their best to find out the tea on PNMs by phone and email, and who can blame them? I have had several calls from chapters already about local PNMs.

This has been a massive fail, both putting a much heavier workload on chapters and offending alums, often the ones who have been their biggest financial supporters. Good luck in keeping the big McMansions in repair.

[honeychile]

Let's not forget that the dedicated alumnae who aren't completely turned off by the state of affairs will most probably STILL send letters of recommendation.

[SquirrelyDays]

WOW, HQWest, that is the kind of diagnostic analysis that I geek out over. I'm glad the data was used to identify an area where women would benefit from support, and then support was provided for a stronger experience both as a student and as a member.

[Cheerio]

I see by the television news people with a lot of time on their hands are continuing to program robots for just about any/every job and activity. Who's up for programming multiple, hard-working 24/7 robots to write Sorority Recs for PNMs in need?

[FSUZeta]

Stay in your lane Naraht.

[kdonline]

Kappa Delta no longer requires recs for membership. Our HQ has also completely revised the rec form.

My opinion is that recs lost their value years ago now that 1) anyone can request a rec from a sorority member they find online - and so many are willing to write them. 2) for some sororities, anyone can write them.

I’ve brought this up 2 years in a row on the r/sororities Reddit and am tremendously downvoted.. ��

[AnchorAlumna]

Originally Posted by kdonline

My opinion is that recs lost their value years ago now that 1) anyone can request a rec from a sorority member they find online - and so many are willing to write them.

Well, they wouldn't have it sorority alumnae had been trained properly as pledges/new members.
Another fallout of the shorter pledging period.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by AnchorAlumna

Well, they wouldn't have it sorority alumnae had been trained properly as pledges/new members.
Another fallout of the shorter pledging period.

Why couldn't they train initiated collegiates? Why only new members?