Washington at St. Louis: 3 Sororities COBing Sophomores & Juniors

[exlurker]

This fall three sororities at Washington U at St. Louis are doing "open bidding" -- COB or COR, Continuous Open Bidding or Recruitment -- for upperclass women. Formal recruitment, mainly for first-year women, remains deferred until "spring."

Student paper article with background and some details:

http://www.studlife.com/news/1.744864

[Aphigal]

Smart groups...I was glad to see Aphi on the list even though this is a strong chapter for us. Always smart to get to max size before recruitment!!

[kchaptergphib]

Did really none of the chapters do COB in the fall before for upperclassmen?! No one joined except through FR?

[pbear19]

I hope no one minds me reposting this, as I found it on wustl's greek life page:

http://www.glo.wustl.edu/shared/pdf/...FL04-SP018.pdf

According to the stats, no new members have joined in the fall the past 4 years at least. I wonder if the idea to COB has anything at all to do with the potential that the school is going to open for expansion??

[deadbear80]

Wash U. has not had 'formal' COB in a LONG time.

When I was a freshman there (1998-1999) all 6 chapters did Fall COB (Theta was at Wash. U. then; ChiO was not)--and that was the last time there was a real COB. Many times, chapters only had a few (like, 3 or less) spots to fill in the Fall so there would only be closed invitational parties--and you basically had to know people in the chapter to know when the events were. A couple of chapters did COB on their own when they needed to in the Fall--and very rarely were events published to the 'public'. DG did do a more published COB for a couple of years--but then they didn't need to, so they stopped.

The number of women participating in sororities has increased over time--so much so that there has been a lot of talk of Wash. U. opening for expansion and adding a 7th sorority. The campus has less than 7,000 students TOTAL (about half of which is women) and each sorority currently has 100 members or more--that's one of the reasons that total was also raised in the process this year. It is not uncommon now to have NM classes in the high 40s or 50s. When I went through recruitment in 1999 (Wash. U. has spring deferred recruitment) quota was 32. The chapters are only getting larger over time, not smaller...which is great. But it means that a 7th chapter could really help lower the number of women in each individual chapter and make the chapters a bit more cohesive. I've met many greek women who are surprised to learn that Wash. U. has as many girls in each chapter as a large state university does. Obviously, there are less sororities--but people seem to think that at a 'smaller' school, there should be smaller chapters. I tend to agree.

If Wash. U. does expand, there may be a need over time to lower total--but maybe not. I will say that total at one time was only about 75-80--and that increased to 90 in the last 4-5 years. When Theta folded in 2000 they had VERY small numbers compared to the other chapters--and now with 6 chapters on campus again (ChiO was colonized in 2003) the number of women going greek has only increased.

I'm proud of Wash. U. getting back to doing a more formal COB--while it is increasingly common for sophomores to rush (and get bids)--there are still some sophomores and juniors who do better in a COB setting then in a more formal recruitment setting. Maybe next year all 6 chapters will participate.