Missing Most of Recruitment Week
 

Hi all! So I’ve been anxiously anticipating recruitment for the past year or so, and now that it’s almost here, I’m crushed to find out I won’t be able to participate in most of it. I’m involved in another organization, for which I’m extremely grateful to have been selected, but they’ve made it clear that they must be the number one priority. They’ve scheduled mandatory, all day activities the week of recruitment. I will only be able to attend Open house and Philanthropy. I’ll miss everything else, even Bid Day. There are several of us in the same boat and we’ve been told to let our recruitment counselors know so they can relay it to the chapters. There are many active Greek women in this organization, so I know the chapters will be aware of the situation. In past years, they’ve held special events for those who had to miss parties, but nothing has been said this year. Also, this is the first year this organization has scheduled things so heavily during recruitment week. I’m wondering now if I’m just going to get cut by everyone if they’re barely going to get a chance to know me. My school doesn’t have Spring recruitment. Has anyone gone through anything like this or have any advice? I’m so disappointed and upset.

If there active Greek women involved in this organization, would they be able to help you and the other girls in your situation? Maybe they would be able to put your name on COB lists or vouch for you with their organizations? Has your recruitment counselor been able to offer any advice/suggestions?

Well as far as I know, we won’t meet our recruitment counselors until convocation. I’m really hoping they are making some kind of arrangement for us, even though I know they don’t have to. Maybe they can schedule our parties at the very end of the night so we can at least attend some of them. I’ve gotten to know and socialize with some of the actives so I hope they’ll vouch for me, although I don’t know how much weight that holds.

At some schools, in the case of some organizations, the girls have a special recruitment schedule. In the past at Auburn, PNMs who were in band had a setup that was pre-approved.On the other hand, I knew women who were at other SEC schools who missed part of recruitment for weddings or international trips and they were cut extremely heavily.

What a lot of it will come down to is which other organization you're involved in and whether the sorority members believe that you would be cutting their meetings later for the first group's meetings.

Have you talked to the Director of Greek Life for your campus? He/she might put your mind a little more to rest. Perhaps a solution is already in place and it just hasn’t been communicated to you. I hope it all works out.

I haven’t spoken to anyone about it yet. I’m glad to hear that some schools have special recruitment schedules, not that it means we will. I’m hoping since this is a school organization and quite a few of us will be affected, they will show us some leniency. If I don’t hear anything in the next week or two, I will definitely get in touch with someone. Thank you all.

If there are that many active Greek women in this organization, why on earth didn’t they open their mouths and protest when this schedule came out? After all, they too will be missing rush activities.

I am afraid that this other organization has made their schedule to conflict with rush specifically to keep members OUT of pledging sororities. They cannot tell you that you are forbidden from being in a sorority, but they clearly want ALL of your time & attention focused on this activity, other than classwork. This is their way of saying "We don't want you to be in a sorority". I know that a lot of collegiate sports teams do this. You might be forced to choose one or the other.

I would contact the Greek Life Office sooner rather than later. If they need to make arrangements for you, they may need to do that in advance. Call them today.

That was my immediate thought too. Do you know how much time this outside org will require of you? Since there are girls in houses already who are in this group it would seem to be an amount of time that can be balanced with sorority life, etc. Maybe they're increasing that amount of time?

Agree with others to get in touch with the Greek Life office immediately and see what can be done. Good luck!

The heads of this organization have made it clear that there will be no complaints heard about this issue. It’s a take it or leave it situation. Sorry if I’m being vague but I’m trying to keep my anonymity. We have a new person in charge this year and perhaps they aren’t Greek-friendly.

I had this feeling as well. Why else would they do this? They’ve always had a “we are your priority” rule, and with a new person in charge, maybe they’re trying establish dominance or something, lol. I’ll just have to play it by ear this year and see if it’s doable or which is more important to me. If I even get a bid at all:(. Like I said, there are many greek women in it but they do tend to miss out on sorority events.

I would really question the ultimate goals of this organization. It sounds as though they want to KEEP their members to themselves—period. Somewhere there is an anti-Greek bias in their officer heirarchy.
If I were this poster I might ask myself: “If I DO pledge a chapter, THEN what? Will this organization throw up roadblocks regarding time spent in sorority meetings, charity and sisterhood events?”
This almost seems like an either/or situation.

It requires a great deal of time. I’ve worried that my plate might be too full with this and being in a sorority but so many women do it and appear to be doing just fine. I’m contacting the office today!

With this change of schedule (them vs. rush) that's why I'm wondering if the outside org will be stepping up how much time they require of you during the school year. Maybe the organization leaders have observed that it's been harder for sorority members to balance their participation with sorority life and make the required meetings so they're trying to set this up where members can't be part of Greek life.

Has this organization let you know how many hours each semester that you're required to participate and what type of weekly schedule you can anticipate? I think that's really important to know so you can get a better feel for if you really can do that AND sorority life (and of course, school). I hope you can make both work, being part of a sorority is such a remarkable experience. Good luck, let us know how things go.