IrishPipes' Retro Recruitment Story

[irishpipes]

I am not completely sure I should post a story. I didn't keep a journal at the time, and my notes are sketchy in places (my rush booklet isn't 100% intact - some pages are missing.) There are some chapters that I have no notes from at all, but many that I have a lot of detail and memories. It is possible that I could confuse some facts. My reasoning for doing a story would be that it is somewhat unusual because of the size of the Greek system involved and the fact that it was 20 years ago. So, despite the negatives, would it be interesting to anyone but me? It would be 1987 at the University of Illinois.

[Leslie Anne]

Absolutely! Please tell your story. Even if you don't have all your notes I'm sure you remember enough to fill in the blanks. I've considered telling mine from 20 years ago too. I still have my invitations and some fairly good notes.

Please tell!



edited to add: I would LOVE to hear a Recruitment story from the University of Illinois!

[AGDee]

Might as well go for it. We don't have anything else to do in this thread for now I have considered telling mine, but it's sort of a "What Not to do in Recruitment" story.. even though it worked out great for me.

[jojapeach]

Of course we're interested!

*sitting crisscross-applesauce on the storytime rug*

[OldAOPi]

AGDee - my story could sure ditto yours - from the "Wow, it's hot could I have a glass of water" at the same house where I told them I was tired of looking at trophies...gee, wonder why they cut me - - - I liked them! (almost 30 yrs)

I figure we need about 20 more stories to get us close to the live reality showtime!

[irishpipes]

I am not sure if I will finish posting the story, but I'll set it up. I'll wait until Maggie at Elon and TrojanWoman are finished to get into it.

This was Fall Formal Rush at the University of Illinois in August 1987. At that time, Illinois had 22 NPC sororities.

Alpha Gamma Delta
Alpha Delta Pi
Alpha Epsilon Phi
Alpha Xi Delta
Alpha Omicron Pi
Alpha Sigma Alpha
Alpha Phi
Alpha Chi Omega
Gamma Phi Beta
Delta Gamma
Delta Delta Delta
Delta Phi Epsilon
Zeta Tau Alpha
Kappa Alpha Theta
Kappa Delta
Kappa Kappa Gamma
Pi Beta Phi
Sigma Delta Tau
Sigma Kappa
Phi Mu
Phi Sigma Sigma
Chi Omega

A 23rd NPC sorority, Delta Zeta, was in the process of recolonizing that fall, but I don't remember knowing anything about that until after rush ended.

My code names, in random order (after counties in the Republic of Ireland):

Waterford
Mayo
Galway
Limerick
Cork
Carlow
Kildare
Meath
Donegal
Kerry
Tipperary
Kilkenny
Wicklow
Roscommon
Wexford
Dublin
Clare
Monaghan
Sligo
Longford
Leitrim
Offaly

[SWTXBelle]

Hope Gamma Phi is Waterford - hey, that's my crystal!

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Oh, c'mon, use real names!

[raincoat]

go Wicklow!

[irishpipes]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

Oh, c'mon, use real names!

And deprive you of the fun of guessing?

[irishpipes]

Originally Posted by Leslie Anne

Absolutely! Please tell your story. Even if you don't have all your notes I'm sure you remember enough to fill in the blanks. I've considered telling mine from 20 years ago too. I still have my invitations and some fairly good notes.

Please tell!



edited to add: I would LOVE to hear a Recruitment story from the University of Illinois!

If you tell yours, I'll tell mine!

[irishpipes]

This may bore you to death, but since I don't have as much detail for the actual parties (like what we ate and drank, what they wore), I'll set the stage a little bit. I guess it would be important to know that I was a Greek novice to be sure. I wasn't sure if I knew more than one person who had been in a sorority at the time that I enrolled (and she was an alumna from a different school.) I had no connections that I was aware of either. I did have good grades and went to an extremely competitive private high school where I was very active in clubs, played a varsity sport, and sang in a variety of shows over the years. I was an over-achiever, but I was not a partier and wasn't extremely popular, but my friends were (if that makes sense.) So, I didn't consider myself a typical sorority girl, but I wanted to start with a clean slate in college and start being the new me! (In retrospect, not a good mindset!)
************************************************** ***
Lace up your pink and white princess Reeboks and let's go back to late fall, 1986...

During my senior year of high school, my mom and I go down to Champaign to take a campus tour. We are placed in a dorm room (sharing a room that small with my mom – wow) and have several scheduled events, including a guided campus tour. As we are doing the tour with several other potential students and families, the guide, who is a very cute, articulate U of I student, mentions that Greek life is very important and historic at U of I and that as many as 50% of students are Greek. (A statistic that I now know was probably inaccurate.) As the tour continues, we pass house after house with Greek letters. I can’t tell which houses are for fraternities and which are for sororities. I love it when the houses have the words spelled out since I don’t know all of the Greek letters (except the ones we used in math.) Someone asks the guide if she is in a sorority and she says that she is. I don’t remember which one she says she is in, but I remember thinking that she is awesome and maybe I would like sorority life. At one point we pass the Limerick house. My mom tells me that her late sister received a bid to Limerick at the University of Tulsa back in the 1950s but didn’t accept it. In my mom’s mind this means that Limerick is the way to go, since she idolized her sister. The tour ends at Memorial Stadium where Illinois is playing the University of Iowa. The big game atmosphere, the huge school, the beautiful campus, and the crisp fall air…I can’t wait until I am a part of this!

[susan314]

More recruitment stories.

I think its interesting to hear the stories from when rush was still rush with all the frills. Even with my story from 1992, rush had started to be slowly scaled back - I'd assume that 1987 rush at Illinois was still full-fledge frills.

[TrojanWoman]

I'm hooked Irishpipes! Your story of being hooked based on the tour and the football game reminds me so much of my first time at USC. Let's hear more!

[Leslie Anne]

Originally Posted by irishpipes

The big game atmosphere, the huge school, the beautiful campus, and the crisp fall air…I can’t wait until I am a part of this!

This isn't boring at all! You write beautifully. I can really 'see' the atmosphere and it's wonderful. I'm looking forward to the rest.

Originally Posted by irishpipes

If you tell yours, I'll tell mine!

I think I will tell mine. You gotta love the 80s!

BTW - 22 sororities? Holy Cow!