Can a competitive recruitment ever be noncompetitive?

[Senusret I]

I'm just curious to hear your stories and examples of campuses where recruitment became increasingly more competitive over time and how it got that way.

I'm also curious if there have ever been any situations where a competitive campus became less so ever time.

[breathesgelatin]

I don't have time to write up the story at the moment, but I believe that W&L is an example of a campus where recruitment was at one time not very competitive and over time became extremely competitive.

I will try to come back and write a bit about how that happened later... just "placemarking" this thread for the moment.

[KSUViolet06]

Alot of times it has to do with enrollment going up, which increases the number of girls who are interested in recruitment and sorority life.

I know that I have heard from older alumnae that quota at my school was once in the 40s-50s, back in the 80's when there was a resurgence of interest in Greek Life (post May 4th and Vietnam).

[APhiAnna]

I think there are two huge factors why campuses have become more competitive.
1) Increased legacies. As more women have been initiated over time, it obviously means more legacies.
2) Increased admittance standards to universities. The overwhelming majority of colleges have, over time, had higher standards to admit students. Therefore there are less and less girls that don't meet national GPAs and the majority of the women admitted to the college will have strong (and, more importantly, comparable) resumes of achievements. This makes grade cuts or cuts for lack of activities/talents nearly impossible at some schools.

[PhoenixAzul]

I was thinking about this the other day. Perhaps some of our "seasoned" GC'rs can enlighten me. Was there ever a dip on the huge Greek campuses, where recruitment is always competitive? I'm talking Ol' Miss, etc. during the anti-Greek days? Was it different then? And if so, when did it pick back up? Was it a sudden spike or a gradual revival of Greek life? I know that Greek life suffered at my Alma mater during the 60s and 70s and finally took up again in the 80s, and it is in many ways still recovering. But our campus has always been pretty left leaning and somewhat eclectic despite a historical greek presence. Just wondering what difference campus culture/environment made?

[Benzgirl]

The opposite happened at my school. When I was going through recruitment in the 80s, nearly every chapter made quota and there were 18 chapters. Quota was higher by about 10 PNMs than it is now. Last year, very few chapters made quota and there are only 14 chapters.

There is a combination of reasons that it is like that. Recruitment numbers really took a dive in the 90s, and it has had a hard time recovering.

[Kansas City]

I've had a similar thought ...
Using RFM, would it be possible for all sorority chapters to eventually gain the same membership numbers and therefore similar popularity that might in turn lead to a less competitive recruitment atmosphere?
I have no evidence to back up the theory but it just seems like a reasonable outcome in my opinion.

[carnation]

If y'all are talking about the times that the nation was more anti-Greek (i.e., the 70s), this absolutely did not affect any SEC or SWC school I know of. It may have been more competitive because so many more schools had 'bed rushes'.

[APhiAnna]

Originally Posted by Kansas City

I've had a similar thought ...
Using RFM, would it be possible for all sorority chapters to eventually gain the same membership numbers and therefore similar popularity that might in turn lead to a less competitive recruitment atmosphere?
I have no evidence to back up the theory but it just seems like a reasonable outcome in my opinion.

Doubtful, because at the most competitive schools (and not just the SEC schools, or just the Southern schools for that matter) it's not just the numbers that determine the "strong" chapters, but the pedigree of the members as well, however that is judged (family name, looks, grades, whatever). Plus, I think it is human nature to want to organize things in a hierarchy...if numbers are all the same, people will find a different way to establish "top" chapters.

But, on the other hand, I think the evening of numbers amongst chapters will lead to easier recruitments, social activities and philanthropic activities for struggling chapters. I don't think it will eliminate tiers or stereotypes, but it will probably mean that a negative stereotype has less implications on how a chapter is run and the type of experience it offers than it did before.

[Low C Sharp]

breathesgelatin, I'm eager to hear whatever you have to say (as usual!).
________
VanessaSquirt cam

[breathesgelatin]

Originally Posted by Low C Sharp

breathesgelatin, I'm eager to hear whatever you have to say (as usual!).

Sooooo tired... I will write it up tomorrow, I promise.

[lucgreek]

Sorority recruitment at my school has gone up exponentially. All chapters always hit total (80) and quite a few girls don't end up with bids. Granted we only have 4 chapters but they really need to add another. Spring recruitment for any sorority is unheard of now as opposed to, from what I understand, not even 5 years ago when all of them had to do spring recruitment for numbers.

[LucyAnne17]

Originally Posted by lucgreek

Sorority recruitment at my school has gone up exponentially. All chapters always hit total (80) and quite a few girls don't end up with bids. Granted we only have 4 chapters but they really need to add another. Spring recruitment for any sorority is unheard of now as opposed to, from what I understand, not even 5 years ago when all of them had to do spring recruitment for numbers.

I realize this is a hijack and slightly old, but I'm surprised that total is only 80 at LUC. It seems like their chapters are bigger??
Do you know what total for fraternities is?

[lucgreek]

I'm fairly sure official total is 80, but I've heard that some groups are over that (KKG and PSS come to mind who could be over total). The school is considering raising total or bringing a new group from what the rumors I hear. KBG had like 9 or 10 very interested NPCs when they wanted to go NPC and chose KKG. I'd love to see another NPC to sort of shake up the recruitment dynamic here.

Fraternities have no total. IFC is loosely organized so if there is an official cap the fraternities don't know about it. As for numbers SAE is 40-50 members, TKE is 30-40. ADG has about 10-20 (they had around 10-12 last year) and Sigma Pi I honestly don't know there numbers (bigger than ADG but smaller than TKE and SAE). There is talk about bringing another NIC group, but that's far off.

Yay for someone being interested in our greek life!

[LucyAnne17]

Originally Posted by lucgreek

I'm fairly sure official total is 80, but I've heard that some groups are over that (KKG and PSS come to mind who could be over total). The school is considering raising total or bringing a new group from what the rumors I hear. KBG had like 9 or 10 very interested NPCs when they wanted to go NPC and chose KKG. I'd love to see another NPC to sort of shake up the recruitment dynamic here.

Fraternities have no total. IFC is loosely organized so if there is an official cap the fraternities don't know about it. As for numbers SAE is 40-50 members, TKE is 30-40. ADG has about 10-20 (they had around 10-12 last year) and Sigma Pi I honestly don't know there numbers (bigger than ADG but smaller than TKE and SAE). There is talk about bringing another NIC group, but that's far off.

Yay for someone being interested in our greek life!

Thats interesting that fraternity life is so much smaller/more disorganized. And doesn't ADG have a house? It seems like they would have more members? Also, what do you mean by "shake up the recruitment dynamic?" I almost went to LUC so I'm really intrigued by their greek life lol. It seems like panhel would want to bring another NPC on board if only to help even out the numbers in fraternities to sororities...