Sorority Recruitment Will Be Deferred at U. of Colorado

[EPTriSigma]

Originally posted by James
Thats the whole point of why administrators like deferred Rush.

Good point. We recently changed back to fall rush shortly after we got a new university president who happens to be greek. Pretty sure a Phi Psi... not 100%.

Our administration is slowly becoming more greek friendly

[lyrica9]

Originally posted by KSigkid


If they had tried to pull that at Boston U, I would have been at the first meeting to voice my protest.

Um... Boston has deferred recruitment for sororities already...

[DeltaEtaKP]

We have deferred recruitment. I see benefits of both types of recruitment. Likely, I would not be in a sorority at all if we had first semester recruitment. However, joining was one of the best decisions I have ever made, and I am sorry that I missed out on being a part of such an awesome thing. My school has only 4 sororities, so by having Spring recruitment, we really get to see how the sororities really are before jumping into anything. This is also a disadvantage, because there is a potential for things to get really ugly between the sororities, but luckly, we are civil. I don't really know how deferred recruitment would work at a larger school...
Also, our fraternities rush the week after the sororities.

[exlurker]

Mixed reactions were reported in the Tuesday, Jan. 11 Denver Post.

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,...646197,00.html

An advisor to one sorority (the sorority was not named) expressed displeasure. (That advisor is also quoted as saying that the school has problems other than just the Greeks, and "I just terminated two members for having a single beer in the house.") A news release from another sorority's inter/national HQ expressed willingness to work with the university and Panhellenic on recruitment issues.

[33girl]

Originally posted by EPTriSigma
When we had Spring recruitment on our campus (Minnesota State), multipul positives....

1.) Grades as a whole (for pledges and chapters) went up and stayed up.

2.) We had better retention rates.

3.) The ratio of those who had been pinned in to those who had gone through to initiation increased.

The one major downfall of Spring recruitment we faced was that it killed our overall greek population on campus. Our numbers across the board were cut in half in some cases. Fall is the best time for numbers.

How much did your retention rate improve with spring recruitment? If you retain members for 4 years, it lessens the need to get huge fall pledge classes, half to two-thirds of whom will not be participating by their senior year.

Totals and quotas were set up when women routinely dropped out of college to get married. It was well known that women would not be around for four years so you needed to pledge them quickly - "retention" probably wasn't even in the vocabulary. That isn't the case anymore. I think there should still be a total/quota system to try and keep all the sororities on an even keel, but I don't see the point of crowing about making quota if you can't ever get to initiation with a complete NM class (let alone graduation).

This is really off the real topic - although I agree with deferred, I don't agree with the admin's means to achieve it.

[Rudey]

Wait are you guys allowed to talk about rush being deferred and recruitment not happening right now?

I think that might be a private issue...recruitment and all. Y'all should respect that because perhaps talking about it openly is disrespect.

This thread and this whole forum needs to be erased or moved into the moderators forum so only the moderators can talk about it. At that point the moderators will be able to disrespect it!

-Rudey

[exlurker]

Update Jan. 15 '05: Fraternity Rush to Be Deferred, Too

The Jan. 15 Denver Post reports that the U. of Colorado will require fraternities as well as sororities to have deferred (spring) rush for freshmen, starting with the 2005-06 academic year. The article lists the major points in what the university is proposing as a "contract," which would be required for university recognition.

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,...654723,00.html

(or go to www.denverpost.com and use their search tools for Jan. 15 articles)

Besides deferred rush for freshmen, the proposed contract requires a full-time live-in U. of Colorado staff member for every fraternity or sorority house.

Then there are four other requirements:

* Abide by federal, state and local laws and the U of Colorado's student code of conduct

* Meet their national organizations' academic standards

* Prohibit underage consumption of alcohol

* Prohibit hazing and the use of alcohol in new member programming

It should be interesting to see what happens as the GLOs discuss this and decide what stance to take. At least for the last four of the proposed requirements, it's hard for me to see how national officers could object (as long as there's a little leeway to allow chapters a bit of time to get their GPAs up if necessary). Deferred rush and live-in CU staff might be more of a concern, at least for some chapters on campus.

[33girl]

Originally posted by exlurker
[Besides deferred rush for freshmen, the proposed contract requires a full-time live-in U. of Colorado staff member for every fraternity or sorority house.

Do they have houseparents now? Would they be able to become staff members of the university? Or would this be in addition to a houseparent?

I think all the parents of prospective freshmen should be informed that if tuition is higher, it may have something to do with yet an extra layer of staff being added.

I HATE deferred recruitment. I unerstand it's strengths, but for selfish reasons, I resented it, and my university for continuing to use it.

[LovedOne]

Our school has deferred recruitment, student must have 12 credits completed before they are allowed to join a fraternity or sorority. I understand people being upset about not being able to take first semester freshmen, but I see the other side of it too.

Deferred recruitment can be seen as a good thing.. It gives new students a chance to adapt to being away at school before diving into something so time consuming, a chance to experience all the sororities and fraternities for an entire semester before choosing one, and makes them have put an effort into meeting people not necisarily in the greek community and not just join their respective GLO and possibly only meet people through that.

On the other hand, joining a sorority or fraternity right off the bat can teach them time management skills, have an automatic group of people to turn to, and have people to watch out for them so they don't make the mistakes that many freshman do concerning alcohol, drugs, and the like.

Sometimes I wish we were able to take first semester freshman, because there are so many great ones. But just because you can't offer them a bid until their second semester doesn't mean you can't introduce them to your GLO, invite them to events, and get to know them. Plus it gives you an entire semester to get to know them better before you do offer them a bid.

It all just depends on how you look at it..

[AnchorAlum]

I can see both sides of it. I've been a volunteer alum at SMU in Dallas, which has deferred rush. PNM's have made their grades, have checked out the houses and understand Greek Life and the attendant commitment.
That said, SMU is heavily Greek anyway, so there is no falloff of numbers.

Deferred rush should be something the campus Panhellenic decides on after discussion and input from NPC, not the University. I have a problem with the university issuing some edict or proclamation saying when rush can or will take place. It appears to me to be a transparent attempt to cut down the number of college students who become members of GLO's.

Did you know that over 60% of college graduates who regularly donate to their Alma Maters are also GLO members?
I think that translates into a power base of sorts, would you not agree?

[TSteven]

Chapters of the Interfraternity Council split from CU, saying the deferred rush was a deal breaker. Fraternities have since been able to increase their membership numbers, despite hurdles such as not having access to mailing lists or being able to rent on-campus rooms at discounted rates.

CU sororities, on the other hand, entered the agreement in 2005, despite financial concerns that delayed rush would mean fewer dues-paying members.

After their first experiment with deferred rush, the number of new members sororities could accept dropped. In spring 2006, based on the number of participants, the school's sororities were each allowed to take in 35 new members. By comparison, sororities each could accept 65 new members in fall 2002.

Wow!

[33girl]

Are all the sororities allowed to mix and associate with the fraternities? Some sororities don't allow their members to have mixers, do homecoming etc if the fraternities aren't recognized by the school.

If I was going through sorority rush and they told me there would be no mixers or homecoming pairings, I might be inclined to say "forget it." Not that mixing is the be all & end all, but when you're paying as much as they probably are at a large school like U of C...it's a hell of a chunk of change to hang out and do philanthropy with a bunch of girls.