USC restricts freshmen from recruitment
 

Just a clarification on the thread title -- the new policy bars first semester freshmen and transfers from recruitment. From the article and letter from the VP of Student Affairs, it sounds like they may move to deferred second semester recruitment, as the new minimum is 12 earned credits at USC and a 2.5 USC GPA.

As a parent of two GLO members who recently went through recruitment -- one in January and one in September -- both of them think that deferred recruitment is preferable because they like the idea of having a semester to acclimate before adding weekly meetings and all the other "doings" to a student's schedule.

I couldn't get the link to work. I hate my computer. Maybe this one will help, if others have a problem.

USC Instates GPA and Unit Requirements for Greek recruitment

We are scheduled to recolonize our Pi charter here next fall. Hopefully, this new mandate doesn't have a huge impact obtaining colony members.

Wow...that's a good question. I wonder if they'll make you delay til January? Or, you may have a monopoly on fall fraternity recruitment if you already have an agreement in place. :D

In my experience, Phi Kappa Tau could still recolonize in the fall and take only upperclassmen. Depending on how your org does it, this group would get the ball rolling with making the colony bylaws, experiencing whatever pledge program y'all provide, etc. Then, probably with assistance from your national office, they will run the recruitment in the spring and help select the new members from the eligible freshmen who rush.

The agreement is Fall '18. We have a couple of colonizations planed for winter/ spring 2019 so delaying may be be a problem.

I assume this wouldn't prevent transfers who joined GLOs at the schools they're transferring from from affiliating with their GLO's USC chapter?

That is quite probably what would happen. When a GLO colonizes, they typically look for new members from all four classes - upperclassmen who can step straight into leadership roles and younger students who will be around for 3-4 years. So, Phi Kappa Tau could draw from the pool of unaffiliated non-transfer sophomore, junior, and senior men for the colony in fall 2018, then participate in spring recruitment and add some freshmen and transfers.

I can't disagree with this. Or having an upper class rush in the fall and freshman rush in the spring. Like a semi-structured informal in the fall where you can only rush to total with upper classmen. I'm thinking Florida or Florida State has a big informal rush where every chapter participates in round 1 and then only chapters who need girls invite back.

ding ding ding

It isn't, usually. But I feel like it's especially bad at Flagship State University where you have feeder high schools and towns (and alumni) perpetuating tiers. Maaaaybe USC will be okay, as they have students from across the country. But yeah, deferred recruitment always makes stereotypes and tent talk and tiers stickier. And I'm not sure that it really helps with membership retention at all, sadly. The one good thing is you have a term of college grades to look at. In my experience, that's really the only positive (and it is definitely a positive) of deferred recruitment.