bid day gone wrong..so sorry this is long but heres my story

[ladybug12]

All of this is just so sad. I work with chapters that are are top recruiting chapters, some in the middle, and some that are not. I just want to see every chapter have success, pledge great women, and have fantastic bid days.

Hearing jeers on bid day is something that I can not process.

Pinapple, I always enjoy your commentary on UT recruitment. I do think that larger number of OOS PNMs at schools like Alabama and Ole Miss have helped ease the strict "tiers" at these schools...it does not seem to be happening in Austin. I hate it for the Greek system, because it is not growing significantly like many other campuses.

[cinder1965]

Originally Posted by utkdce

It is so sad. Sometimes it is the mother that can't accept that their daughter did not get a sorority that the mother considers good enough. In the not so distant past, I witnessed a mother removing her daughter from bid day activities at UT, after the daughter was already wearing her bid day t-shirt. Can you imagine the pain that daughter felt? Disgusting behavior by a grown woman. Yet another example of the brutality of recruitment at Texas.

WTH? Are you for real? I am trying to picture this scene in my mind and, well, I just can't.

[TriDeltaSallie]

Originally Posted by cinder1965

WTH? Are you for real? I am trying to picture this scene in my mind and, well, I just can't.

I can't either. But that chapter dodged a bullet. They won't have to deal with them for the next four years.

[Jill1228]

Originally Posted by utkdce

It is so sad. Sometimes it is the mother that can't accept that their daughter did not get a sorority that the mother considers good enough. In the not so distant past, I witnessed a mother removing her daughter from bid day activities at UT, after the daughter was already wearing her bid day t-shirt. Can you imagine the pain that daughter felt? Disgusting behavior by a grown woman. Yet another example of the brutality of recruitment at Texas.

Oh. Hell. To. The. No
I can't even

[Benzgirl]

Originally Posted by ladybug12

I do think that larger number of OOS PNMs at schools like Alabama and Ole Miss have helped ease the strict "tiers" at these schools...it does not seem to be happening in Austin. I hate it for the Greek system, because it is not growing significantly like many other campuses.

Help erase...no, but OOS are more accepting. My rec girl at Bama was extremely happy to get a New Row house and loved them all of the way through recruitment. Parents were thrilled for her, period. However, she is already sick of the stigma of classmates reminding her that she is "New Row". At least she is smart enough to realize how immature her classmates are.

[thetalady]

Originally Posted by ladybug12

I do think that larger number of OOS PNMs at schools like Alabama and Ole Miss have helped ease the strict "tiers" at these schools...it does not seem to be happening in Austin. I hate it for the Greek system, because it is not growing significantly like many other campuses.

I am afraid that the tiers at Ole Miss & Alabama are carved in stone. Had the tablets given to Moses been carved in the same stone, they wouldnt' have broken when he threw them.

[Nanners52674]

Originally Posted by thetalady

I am afraid that the tiers at Ole Miss & Alabama are carved in stone. Had the tablets given to Moses been carved in the same stone, they wouldnt' have broken when he threw them.

Among the people who care, absolutely. But with the surge in OOS less PNMS care and/or tend to be more open minded about the houses. They'd rather be Greek than drop out over tiers.

[carnation]

Not quite. There's a fair amount of PNMs who will take, say, New Row chapters or their equivalent at other SEC schools because in their home state, those are the top chapters and they plan to go back after graduation. Many girls do come to the SEC and not care about tiers (they never knew what tiers were anyway) but if one looks at where new members come from for each chapter, it's obvious.

Many people predicted this when certain states restricted their admissions to flagship universities.

[Missouri Ivy]

I remembered seeing a lot of California girls on the Alpha Phi bid list at Alabama. I went back and counted and came up with 12. I'd say that supports the theory.

[pinapple]

I have to agree that OOS pushes at some Universities are making the tiers at some greek systems a little less firm than years past. But I also agree, that traditions die hard....if they even die at all.

At UT, most everyone knows the Big 6 is alive and well. The issue I have with the Big 6 is that one or two of these Chapters, IMO have been on the decline over the last 5 years while one or two of the others (also Big 6) have solidified their position by doing brilliant recruiting and looking past "what always had been". This is it where it gets really interesting. The chapters that again IMO are "slipping" have no idea internally that they are loosing their status inside the Greek Community because they are inside. It is the people that advise, mentor and aid these chapters that see the writing on the wall. But their mommas think they are number one, they tell their friends who tell their daughters....blah blah blah. That is simply how old money works.

All the while right down the street, chapters that are considered "mid-tier" at UT are making strides to not care what anyone else thinks. Yes, they pledge legacies, and they honor that tie, but at the same time, they honor diversity and understand that 95% of learning at UT comes from learning from each other. As I observed these chapters, and as a person that has seen the backlash on the entitlement generation, you would think someone, somewhere would celebrate the fact that there are some young women in leadership roles (and let me be more specific and say evaluation committees) and write an article on the good they are doing to embrace the trend toward diversity at UT and their willingness to smash stereotypes of what a typical sorority women is.

The Big 6 six started with an article written over 30 years ago and frankly I would be embarrassed that my biggest claim to fame was a gold bangle and a car in the parking lot that daddy bought.(A focus point of that article) Women at UT celebrate so many other accomplishments from being in top honors programs, to being Presidents of other student organizations, to being valedictorians, and raising money for charity. Shouldn't Panhellenic women seek out these strong, motivated and diverse women to take their chapter by Bevo's horns and move it in a direction that is more in keeping with current trends in our societies? I am not at all saying that there is not a place for your "typical blonde cheerleader education major" (Forgive the stereotype....but I am drawing on this exact stereotype for this example), what I am saying is that UT stopped recruiting that exact type of person a long time ago and started believing in, highly intelligent, STEM, honors program and business women to come to its University, so shouldn't the Greek System embrace this change in who is who at UT?

I also ran across a picture of a group of women that was taken at bid day from one chapter. These women are team members of the Texas 4000. (I think what really amazed me is that 5 women from one house are on this team. From what I know around 80-90 members ride each year...that is a pretty large percentage from one sorority. So does this house seek these women, or are their recruiting practices such that women like these are attracted to this chapter??...just some food for thought) This team rides their bikes from Austin to Anchorage Alaska each year to raise money for cancer research. Talk about strong women. Strong Greek Women. Beautiful, physically in amazing shape and yet, not in a Big 6 House. These women exemplify what type of sorority women anyone with Panhellenic ties should be looking for.

That is simply an example of what I observe and see at UT. Will it ever go away. Doubtful. Will there be groups of women who seek out other women who will blaze paths of greatness? Of course. And the truth is these movers and shakers will come from Mid-Tier, Big 6 and any other house at UT. For a strong women will define her chapter, not the other way around.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by pinapple

For a strong women will define her chapter, not the other way around.

If every woman everywhere would understand and believe that, we wouldn't have tiers or weak recruiting chapters at any of our schools. Unfortunately, the men seem to be the only ones that get this.

[carnation]

The men are just as bad.

[FSUZeta]

Originally Posted by carnation

The men are just as bad.

Or worse. I have heard college men telling PNMs which sororities they should join. Heck, they were doing it back in the dark ages when I rushed.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by 33girl

If every woman everywhere would understand and believe that, we wouldn't have tiers or weak recruiting chapters at any of our schools. Unfortunately, the men seem to be the only ones that get this.

Originally Posted by FSUZeta

Or worse. I have heard college men telling PNMs which sororities they should join. Heck, they were doing it back in the dark ages when I rushed.

She can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe 33girl is referring to how men perceive their individual influences on their own chapter; not how they influence sorority recruitment.

By the way, if PNMs believed that - that a strong woman will define her chapter, not the other way around - then PNMs wouldn't listen to the men who try to tell them which chapter to join.

[PearlGirl13]

Too many PNMs look at Bid Day as the Finish Line, the prize... when really it is just a mile marker and the process of developing as sisters is just beginning. It is sad when a girl won't give a chapter a chance because she thinks the Bid is all that she had set out to accomplish.

As mothers and alumnae we need to help PNMs look further down the road so they remain open to accepting a Bid and letting the process continue to work.