Getting a Bid from Someone You Didn't Pref

[SigK_Bama]

Originally Posted by AlphaFrog

Biting my tounge when I SO want to say it.

Something about another particular rushee at my school?

[AOIIBrandi]

We had a similar story to SigK_Bama's, 2 girls we cut every round of rush (somehow they kept turning back up at our parties) and put on our B bid list because we didn't have a choice ended up getting bids to our house. We actually tried to give them a chance in the beginning, then once it was determined by most women that it wasn't going to work out we tried to de-pledge them. Long story short they got initiated and we never heard from or about them again - I can't figure out why they would pay all that money if they were never going to show up again after that

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by SigK_Bama

Something about another particular rushee at my school?

Now, WHAT would give you THAT idea??

[lsu_rosewhite]

So you all have some serial rushees????

[carnation]

Originally Posted by SigK_Bama

I've kind of been through this, but as an initiate on the other side of rush.

When I was President, we had four girls walk into our suite on bid day who we had cut on the first day.

I hear you there! When I was an officer in Omicron Delta Kappa, we extended bids and invited the new folks to their first meeting. Some people we didn't invite showed up and they had invitations! There were people far more qualified who hadn't made it!

Our advisor made us sweep it under the table and take them. A lot of students were very unhappy. We thought that the secretary sent out the extra bids but we never found out why.

As to the girls who made Cruddy Phi, my informant said they left--horribly upset--and never rushed again. She knows they were at AB and CD prefs because she was at the same prefs and they were talking there about how irritated they were that CPC kept asking them back, even though they kept cutting them.I don't know if they ever pursued it with Panhellenic or simply faded away, like burned PNMs usually do.

That's what seems to happen with burned PNMs, at least the ones I've heard about--PH acts like, "Oh well, it's too late, everyone has their pledge classes and we're so sorry, but....." I wish that NPC would send every local Panhellenic a booklet of possible crazy scenarios and details about how they could solve the problems.

[doubleblue&gold]

I can see how it could happen when the PNM ranks someone they didn't pref-----and I've seen posts from many here talking about doing it---either required or just because they like someone they didn't pref. But if they didn't have them on their bid card, they shouldn't have to accept.

I had a different problem. I went to bid matching one year when we didn't make quota. A PNM that had declined us with interest in an early round, ranked us. Her pref groups did not give her a bid and we didnt have her on our bid list. Because we had a place open and would have offered her a snap bid, we did extend a bid. She accepted and became a great member.

[SoCalGirl]

Originally Posted by UCFStefanie

I can speak from experience.

I ranked a Chapter #1 all week long (Theta) and went to all of their rounds except prefs. I only went to prefs with one group, Chapter AB.

But opened my bid to find my #1 choice (Theta). Believe me I was suprised and estatic. How it happened lord only knows.

After prefs my Rho Gamma had me put down all groups that I would accept a bid from. My rho gamma and the graduate assistant of Greek Life both knew who my #1 choice was. So It could be a possibility that because I ranked all chapters I would accept a bid from that someone accepted a snap on my behalf rather than giving me the call that I had been dropped.

The world will never know. But years later, I am happy as a duck and thankful that things worked out the way they did. It taugh me a lot and I wouldnt chance a thing.

I'm pretty sure one of the more recent Greek Advisors at my school would pull stuff like that, accepting bids on behalf of the PNM. She was always trying to make sure recruitment numbers looked good but I think she went about it all wrong.

[SoCalGirl]

Originally Posted by SigK_Bama

I've kind of been through this, but as an initiate on the other side of rush.

When I was President, we had four girls walk into our suite on bid day who we had cut on the first day. We were all shocked and it was really hard to get over it. We discovered that Panhellenic, at the urging of some random alumnae who had been sent by NHQ to help us with rush, had added those girls to our bid lists because they thought we needed the numbers. None of us in the chapter were told - not me as President and not our VPM. In short, we were pissed. On the other hand, the four girls were thrilled to be in our suite because they had all been dropped during the week. They were expecting not to get bids, but had received calls from the Greek Life office that morning telling them that they did, in fact, get bids.

It was a horrible experience, and after these alums found out how upset we were, they left town that same day and never came back to our chapter again.

Recruitment Supervisor = More Power than GOD!

[UGAalum94]

Carnation,

Have you spoken to the girls themselves? If in fact they did get bids from groups that they cut, rather than declined with interest, with no invitation or phone call first, it's weird and just plain wrong (especially if they face penalties in COR for not accepting the bid).

On the other hand, sometimes stories get mis-reported as they get second and third hand. Maybe they did get phone calls, but didn't want to admit that they had accepted bid from Cruddy Phi Cruddy when reality set in. (Or maybe they were asked in general if they would accept a bid from someone they didn't pref, but they didn't understand that Cruddy was the group in question.)

If you can find more information, let's look into it. We could get an active or alum at that university to call Greek Life.

It's terrible for Cruddy too. They thought they got some new members when really they didn't. Most groups want people who they think want them. This surprise bid is no good for anyone.

[carnation]

All of these cases I've talked about (this one, similar surprise bid cases, the one with the forced prefs leading to the memberless bid class, the snatched pledge, others) were reported to PH either by me or by other adults as well as the victims. In every case, the victim was brushed off or told she could rush the next year. In the case of the snatched pledge, the affected sorority was brushed off and advised they could just pick up somebody else.

Once pledge classes are formed, it seems that little is done to punish violators; maybe PH is afraid that girls will demand a bid from their group of choice, thus making other groups demand extra members, or take the case to a higher campus court or maybe a real court and embarrass them so they sweep it under the rug. Same goes for cases in which a sorority does something awful to another one during recruitment...about three years ago, one sorority at a nearby school did something planned and horrendous to another one during recruitment. The offending group lost a couple of socials and the victims haven't recovered numberwise to this day.

And don't even get me going about the Greek advisor who felt sorry for a smaller sorority so she put a big group's top 5 from their bid list onto the bid list for a smaller group and vice versa. Boy, were those women (and sororities) surprised when bids came out...and most of the people quit, never to consider Greek life again. I know that our system usually works but there are egregious errors as well.

[UGAalum94]

All of those examples are shocking to me. It mainly seems surprising that the people doing all that stuff expect to get away with it AND, even more so, expect that it will "work."

Common sense would tell me that matching a girl to a group she doesn't want will only cause more de-pledging.

I can't say that I think a law suit about rush would be appropriate, but taking these cases to the Greek Life advisors supervisors at the university should happen.

I would have thought that all the computer matching would make all this tampering less likely.

[PenguinTrax]

except there are still alot of campuses that don't use computers for matching. It's still done the oldfashioned way, by hand. That said, the bid lists should never been in anyone's possession except the chapter's advisor attending recruitment. The Greek Life advisor should not even be present during bid matching, or at least be there as a neutral party.

[alum]

One more thing to worry about come January recruitment!

Legacy status can be a good or bad thing depending on the chapter and other sororities on campus;

quota additions seem to favor the "good chapters";

modernized invitation numbers seem to favor the weaker chapters creating an even greater demand for an invite to a top house since supply is down;

and now throwing girls into houses that they don't want at all?

[33girl]

Originally Posted by alum

modernized invitation numbers seem to favor the weaker chapters creating an even greater demand for an invite to a top house since supply is down

I don't think it "favors" the weaker chapters - it simply is forcing the rushees and sororities who invite everyone with a uterus to "get real." If the rushees were realistic, they wouldn't keep wanting a chapter that doesn't want them. If the sororities were realistic, they wouldn't keep inviting back girls they don't want just for the sake of insurance. Plus it can't help that sorority (or Greek life overall) when the rushees realize they've been played the whole time - that they weren't really wanted.

[AnchorAlumna]

Originally Posted by Alphagamuga

I would have thought that all the computer matching would make all this tampering less likely.

Computers aren't necessarily perfect...they're only as good as the humans entering the info. Of course, I'm sure a lot of the errors blamed on computers are traceable to someONE instead of someTHING.