[Zillini]

I'm new to this BB and just read through this thread. I'll tell you what I know about the attire change as well as some other stuff.

Let me give you a little history first for those who don't know about UA. 6, maybe 7 years ago Panhellenic, at the strong urging of the Administration, started taking steps to move towards a no-frills Recruitment. That first year a budget cap was placed on Recruitment and it was lowered the following year. Philanthropy Day was incorporated for 2nd round (used to be called 10 party day here) in place of what was an additional skit day. Some additional minor restrictions were placed like no balloons. But then the no-frills progression stopped for some unknown reason.

Now this year the Admin is once again pursuing no-frills. In the Spring there was a Panhellenic Recruitment meeting where a poll was taken asking what the chapters would like to see PNMs wear for 1st round. (In the past PNMs typically wore sundresses.) We were given 2 options: shorts or nice capri outfits. Of course all the actives were very upset by the proposed changes but given only these choices, they went with capris. Apparently this poll was disregarded because we were informed that PNMs would be instructed to wear shorts on 1st round (formerly known as Ice Water Tea and now called Open House). I'm told that the decision came from the Admin.

I asked my Recruitment Team (I'm a Chapter Advisor here) if they thought we should change what our actives wear for 1st round so that the PNMs wouldn't feel underdressed. They unanimously said no. For this year they don't believe PNMs will follow the guidelines, at least those who know the history of Bama Recruitment which most of them do. The team was afraid the actives would appear underdressed. Plus, most of the actives have already spent money on their attire and we it wouldn't be fair to require them to go out and buy something else. After this year, we'll re-evaluate what we wear.

As another poster said (apologies for not remembering who), the University is making efforts to dramatically increase student enrollment. Interesting tidbit is that most of the University's additional recruiting efforts are of out-of-state students. That could mean that some of the old "traditions" may change simply because these new members won't be locked into the past unlike in-state students.

The other expected result of this student population increase is that PNM numbers will also significantly increase in the years to come. Last year was the largest pool of PNMs we've ever experienced and was just shy of 1,000. Quota ended up being (I think) 58, 4 of which were upper classman. Rumors have been running around that this year it may be 2,000-2,500. Based on past year's rumors vs actual, I anticipate maybe 1,200-1,500.

Like anything else in life, this brings good news and bad. The good news is obviously the Greek system here will remain strong, unlike alot of campuses throughout the country where Greek numbers are dwindling. Again as another poster stated, average actual membership total is around 140 while Panhellenic Chapter Total is still set at 125. Last year a Panhellenic proposal was made to increase Chapter Total to 140, but was abandoned due to the fact that it was too soon. It was decided that we need to experience a few years of large numbers before changing Chapter Total and when we do, it should be increased slowly and not all at once. (The NPC Green Book used to state that increases/decreases should only be made in increments of 5, but apparently that was eliminated.) Another valid point was that we shouldn't change Chapter Total until all houses are at least within "striking range" of total and there are still some houses that are struggling. If we increase it before that, then it would make it even harder for those chapters to achieve Total.

Also, assuming these increases continue I wouldn't be surprised if Panhellenic looks to invite another GLO to colonize here. The numbers are potentially so large that the current houses can't handle them all. But at this time there is no real discussion of that, merely speculation.

Another plus for the system has obviously been financial. The more members you have, the more money you have. Most of the fixed costs in running a chapter with a house don't increase (or decrease) regardless of the number of members you have. So larger house totals have allowed many of the sororities to have additional money for house maintenance and other expenses. With the exception of only a couple, most of the houses are pretty old and eat up money in maintenance.

Something else, a little more than a year ago the Tuscaloosa City Council passed an ordinance requiring all student housing, including sororities and fraternities, to have fire sprinkler systems. I've heard the lowest estimate was $80,000 and that was for one of the smallest houses (meaning physical size). The only thing delaying this is that the University's water system must be upgraded before it can be implemented, so we have a few years reprieve. But obviously everyone needs to be saving now or will need to take out loans.

Now for the bad news. The physical houses simply cannot hold this many members. Almost all the chapters have been told by the Fire Inspector that they cannot hold Chapter Meetings in their houses because they exceed capacity. At this time it's not stopping anyone, but soon no one will physically be able to fit all their members in their house at one time. We'll all need to look for alternative meeting locations on campus, which are also somewhat limited. Sororities may have to stagger scheduling for meetings. Both of these things violate strong traditions on this campus and nobody wants to change, although soon we'll have no choice.

Another problem is simply having such a large pledge class. For us and I'm sure other chapters, we had to have some actives take on multiple little sisters. We also recruited upperclassmen to take another one. Normally we have minimum GPA requirements for big sisters because it is a privillege and we want good role models. But we had to relax that simply because we didn't have the numbers.

Then there is the problem of recruiting with huge PNM parties. We're one of the larger houses and every single active had to recruit. Sometimes we couldn't have rotation groups because there weren't enough members left to start the bumps. I'm sure the smaller houses had to double or triple up the PNMs. It's difficult enough to determine if one PNM is a good fit in only 15 minutes or so, imagine how hard it must be to rate 3 or 4? Plus, I'm sure it's only a matter of time before the Fire Inspector puts a stop to these massive numbers in the houses at once.

Personally, I think we need to add additional parties to each round but so far that's not in the cards. This year we will be implementing the new NPC Release Figure system, so we'll just have to wait and see how it affects the size of each party. But as I understand how this new system works, the smallest houses are still going to have the largest parties while the large houses will have the smaller ones. That's still going to make it hard for the small houses to effectively recruit simply due to the numbers.

Finally, one pledge class being so large completely throws off the balance of a Chapter. This can really come into play during officer elections, membership selection voting and such. You've got the most inexperienced class that if they present a united front can completely control any vote. As the newest members they don't fully grasp the history of a chapter, it's goals and (at least in regards to elections) the history of various individual members.

Oops, almost forgot that freshman tend to have the lowest GPAs since it's their first time away from home and "Wow, you mean I don't have to go to class if I don't want to? Party time!" This can trash a chapter's GPA. Hey, we all have scholarship programs but you can't make someone study or go to class if they don't to. (Personally this is the biggest reason why I don't like initiating after only 6-8 weeks. Making someone pull grades before getting initiated was a huge incentive.)

Oh my, I had no intention of creating such a long post. Stuff just kept popping into my head that I wanted to talk about.