AGDee's Retro aka How NOT to do recruitment

[AGDee]

Background: I was totally clueless. Totally. One of my best friends from high school was a boy named Michael who was the ex-boyfriend of a friend of mine (Nancy). After my friend cheated on him, I was very angry with her and remained close to him. He was a year older than me and when he graduated, he went to Eastern Michigan University (Go Hurons! ((Once a Huron, Always a Huron))). He had a new gf from my high school class and I drove her up to EMU a couple times to visit him. In the process, I fell in love with his roommate, who took me to my prom and we ended up in a long distance relationship.

First Semester Freshman Year: The year was 1983. There I was, a brand new freshman at EMU, entering the world of college, scared to DEATH, except for the fact that I had Rich (bf) and Michael (bff) there to guide me. During my first semester, I was getting my feet wet on campus. I'd been invited to join the University Ambassador's Society, an organization for students with good grades and leadership potential (based on high school info) who worked to help recruit new students by doing phone calls and tours and stuff like that. Michael was also invited to join as was Nancy. Pretty much, Michael, Rich, Nancy and I hung out all the time. We ate all of our meals together, partied together, etc.. even though Nancy and Michael were just friends. Through the Ambassador's Society, we met a TON of greeks. Michael and Rich both went through fraternity rush that first semester and ended up pledging TKE. When I was talking to my parents one day, I mentioned that and my dad told me that he is a TKE. I had no idea until that day. The greeks who were part of the Ambassador's Society were really amazing leaders. Several of them were seniors who were also on student government and stuff. Michael and Rich had two female friends who lived on their dorm floor named Karen and Theresa. Karen and Theresa hung out with us a lot too. Karen was really nice but Theresa just always rubbed me the wrong way. They were in one of the four sororities on campus.

So, once Michael and Rich were TKE pledges, I was at the TKE house with them a lot. They were really awesome guys.. campus leaders, preppy types, good grades and, as they wouldn't let you forget.. Ronald Reagan (President at the time) was a brother. Lots of sorority women hung out with the TKEs and they had a little sister group, which I contemplated joining. But, I decided to try out sorority rush instead.

Back then, our rush was pretty frilly (not quite so much as the South, but way more than today!). There were 4 NPC groups on campus and a local. The local sometimes did formal rush and sometimes didn't. Formal rush was held both fall and winter semesters, which was kind of insane.. no.. REALLY insane. I decided to rush winter semester, much to my mother's chagrin, but with my father's blessing "Don't worry, I'll help you pay the dues if you need me to".

[Leslie Anne]

Yes! Another Retro story. I'm a little confused though, were you at EMU too?

[AGDee]

Part 1 of what NOT to do.

Once I had decided to rush, I started asking the guys what each of the sorority chapters was like and got pretty much the same stereotyped reply from all of them.

Poodles: They are all blonde and pretty and stuck up, except for the fat ones and they are just fat. (Yes, very odd.. they were both the pretty group AND the fat group) They were one of two big chapters on campus. I wasn't blonde and, although I was not a stick figure, I wasn't fat either, so I knew I didn't fit in. Karen and Theresa were in this group and I knew I didn't want to hang out with them, so I eliminated them as a possibility.

Labradors: Very popular girls, party girls, (not "good" girls), the other of the two big chapters.

Russian Toy Terriers: Who?? Super small chapter, nobody knows any of them, pretty much the invisible chapter. I also eliminated them as a possibilty immediately, simply based on lack of campus visibility and smallness.

Airedale Terrier: "They are the really stuck up girls who won't sleep with us", the smart girls, they're the good girls.

So, before attending even ONE party, I had eliminated two groups purely based on the opinions of the majority of the TKEs (and my dislike of one member of one group).Can we stay STUPID rushee???

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by Leslie Anne

Yes! Another Retro story. I'm a little confused though, were you at EMU too?

Oh, yes, I was at EMU too, a year after the guys had started there.

[susan314]

I was so hoping that you would eventually join the retro recruitment bandwagon!

(Think I mentioned to you before that my cousin was in a sorority at EMU - Alpha Sigma Tau, but she would have been a few years after you. Don't know exactly what year she went through rush, but she graduated HS in 1987. She lives in Texas now, but I'll be seeing her next weekend for a family cookout. I should ask her about her rush experience...we've never really talked about it, and she's the only other person in my family who initiated into a sorority.)

[AGDee]

The ASTs came back to campus when I was almost graduated (graduated in '87). I'm pretty sure they were the Lambda Chi Crescents and when the little sis groups were banned, they petitioned for expansion and re-colonized AST. Everybody was really excited because it was their Alpha chapter. Shortly after that, another group of women formed an interest group and I *think* they became Delta Zeta, but I was moving onward and upward by then. They now have a lot more.. DPhiE, Phi Sigma Sigma, and.. I don't remember them all now!

I should say, when I went through recruitment, the four there were

Alpha Xi Delta
Sigma Kappa
Sigma Sigma Sigma
Alpha Gamma Delta

ETA: I was going to start this before my mom went in the hospital but then the last couple weeks became insane and I barely even had time to read GC, let alone post this.


And then, Sigma Nu Phi, the local, who has been there over 100 years, which I think is pretty darn impressive.

[MaggieXi]

My dad is a TKE too and I never knew that until I went through Recruitment either!!

[AGDee]

I didn’t take any notes and this is all from memory from 23 years ago, so bear with me! I have been thinking about it a lot and I think I remember most of the details. Keep in mind, this was January in Michigan. Nobody was wearing any sundresses. We were wearing boots, bringing shoes to change into, wearing parkas, scarves, gloves, etc. Sometimes you even wore a pair of jeans under your skirt so you didn’t freeze your legs.

All events were held in the student union because nobody had official houses. Tri Sigma had an unofficial house as did the Alpha Gams (which the TKEs ended up leasing after Rich burned their house down, but that’s another story).

I am using old terms because I am old and those are the terms we used.

There was some sort of informational session during which we filled out a form and were organized into groups. We met our Rush Counselors and I can’t remember AT ALL who mine was or what role she played, if any, during rush. In my group was a gal named Renee who lived on my dorm floor and a gal named Kirsten who I just took to very quickly. I had really liked Renee from the first time I met her too. She was bubbly and enthusiastic and just a pleasure to be around because her positive attitude was contagious. Kirsten was more quiet, but very very nice and I liked being around her because she was so serene. My sort of friend, Nancy, was also going through recruitment and she really wanted to be a Labrador, but she wasn’t in my group. One of the sophomores from the Ambassador Society was also going through rush. Her name was Libby and she was this hyper spaz enthusiastic gal who I really liked from the first time I met her.

They introduced all the Panhellenic officers who had disaffiliated and they told us things about Greek Life. I knew a couple of them from the Ambassador’s Society so the disaffiliation didn’t make a lot of sense to me. I understand it better now, but people didn’t make a huge deal out of it. Nobody tried to guess what group women were in or anything. They gave us the basic Go Greek pep talk and told us what to wear. We got an info booklet with symbols, colors, flowers,and financial information on all the groups. We were told that we would be receiving invitations to the first parties in the next day and that we would be invited to all the first parties and go with our rush groups. I still really had no idea that cuts could happen and that some women wouldn’t get bids, etc. I thought you just went, saw which group you liked and then joined them.

I was wrong!

[AOE2AlphaPhi]

I'm so excited about this thread!

[AGDee]

I received my invitations the next day. I only remember what one of them was like (and this probably makes it very obvious which group this one was) but it was in the shape of a record (yeah, we had records back then, it was post 8 tracks and cassettes were getting popular, but we still had records) with the invite information as the record label. It was very cute. It was from the Airedale Terriers. All were handmade invitations from construction paper and they all looked like they took a lot of time to make (and they did, as I found when I was Rush Chair the next semester)

Since I knew I didn’t want to be a Poodle or a Russian Toy Terrier, I didn’t go to their first parties. Nobody had told me that this could impede any chances of getting a bid or that I had to go to their parties and, to be honest, I don’t think anybody cared back then. Almost everybody wanted to be a Poodle, except me.

I knew we had to dress up a little, so I wore basic black pleated dress pants, black pumps and a silvery/gray silky blouse. I wore the ever-present gold herringbone chain and some simple gold hoop earrings. Nothing too fancy. I had (cringe) a bi-level cut with big permed hair. If you don’t know what a bi-level is, I’m not telling, cuz they call it something else now and I don’t want to admit it.. BUT, it was VERY in then, I swear it.

I caught up with Renee outside the Airedale Terrier room in the student union and we waited outside together. She had already been to the other two parties. I had no idea what to expect. We walked into the room and there were two lines of women dressed in 50’s clothes.. poodle skirts, sweaters or blouses, with pony tails and saddle shoes! How adorable! They were singing some catchy song with their letters in it. As we each walked in, one of the girls stepped out of the line and escorted us to a table where they gave us a nametag and we wrote our names on them. They were homemade nametags and these were like the outline of a ’57 Chevy. They took us over to a table where there was punchbowl of root beer floats and platters of cheese and crackers and helped us get some food and a root beer float. Yum! I liked this rush thing. I enjoyed talking to the girl I was with a lot. She took me over to meet some other sisters. The room was all decorated like a 50’s diner. I chatted for a while with several different sisters and then they sat us down for a skit. It was a Grease skit and ALL the words to the songs were adapted to fit the sorority! How clever these women were! I was so impressed. I had no idea what to expect coming into this and I was really enjoying it. The skit was touching as Rizzo decided to become a member of this great sorority and all the sisters sang “We go together” and looked like they really loved hanging out with each other. Wow! I wanted to be part of that! Then, we had to leave and I was bummed out.

Renee and I headed to the next party, the Labradors and waited outside again for the party to start. We talked about how much fun the Airedale Terrier party was but Renee wasn’t quite as impressed as I was. Maybe because she’d been to two parties already?

We walked into the Labrador party together and stopped at the nametag table to fill out a nametag. Then, one of the sisters took Renee into the crowd but nobody picked me up. I kind of stood there, not knowing what to do. Nobody came and talked to me. I felt like a Martian. What was up with this??? I went to the refreshment table and they had assorted candies.. m&m’s, mints, etc. and a punch. I helped myself to those and tried to kind of hang out near a group of girls who were talking, but was too intimidated to just join in with a group. When the skit was going to start, I found Renee and sat by her. I don’t remember this skit at all. I think I was just shell shocked because nobody had spoken to me.

I left that party knowing that I wouldn’t be going back to them.

[FSUZeta]

oh gosh dee. how awful for you. i think you were very brave to have stayed!

[AlwaysSAI]

Whoa....that's horrible. Maybe they just miscalculated or someone got out of place or something. But still! No one ever came in for the save?

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by AGDee

. Then, one of the sisters took Renee into the crowd but nobody picked me up. I kind of stood there, not knowing what to do. Nobody came and talked to me. I felt like a Martian. What was up with this??

Sounds like the recruitment chair made a mistake or something. It happens. I'm really surprised that they didn't have someone (who didn't pick someone up at the door) come talk to you ASAP. That's one of the big "no no's" of recruitment (leaving PNMs alone).

[AGDee]

Rush was spread out over a couple weeks, only on weekends, so it was 3 weekends in total. I had so enjoyed my time at the Airedale Terrier party and knew that was the only sorority I wanted to be in. I spent the week in Rich and Michael’s dorm room watching out the window for Airedales to walk by (because their dorm was more in the middle of campus where you could see a lot of people). Each sorority had baseball type jackets, which were worn year round, and each sorority had a different color jacket. I kept my eyes pealed for the Airedale jackets and would get excited whenever I saw one.

Around Wednesday, we got invitations for the second parties. The Airedale one was a grass skirt on the front with an invite to their Luau on the inside. I also received an invitation from the Labradors. I talked to Nancy and found out that she had not been invited back to any parties. What??? How can that happen??? Oh, she didn’t make grades. She’d had a 1.99 our first semester of college (a little too much partying I think!) and you had to have at least a 2.0 for every sorority on campus. Whoa! Grades matter? Who knew??? Well, I had a 3.8.. so if grades matter, then I have NOTHING to worry about, right? I sought reassurance from Michael, Rich, Karen and Theresa (they knew I didn’t want to be in their sorority and were OK with it) and they all assured me that I was the ideal sorority girl and I just had to pick where I wanted to go. I wasn’t quite so confident by this time.

So, Saturday comes and I go to the Airedale party only. If the Labradors couldn’t talk to me the first time, they didn’t get a second chance. Humph! But, I wondered now if maybe I should have given the Russian Toy Terrier a chance though. Kirsten really loved them when she went to their party. Oh well, what’s done is done. Renee was going back to all four parties. She liked things about each of them. She was so positive! We didn’t have to cut until Preference.

I went into Airedale Terrier very excited because I’d had such a good time before. I am pretty sure that I wore a floral print skirt and maroon sweater with black pumps and the same jewelry as before. The details on this one are sketchier, but I remember the food! They had a huge fruit platter with tropical fruits and toothpicks with the fluffy plastic things on them. They also had a fruit punch. The nametags were pineapples. The girls were in beach attire (shorts and t-shirts, not bikinis or anything). We talked for a long time and this blonde gal named Sherri, who I had talked to for a long time during the 50’s party, came by and chatted again. She was so nice and friendly. I really liked her. Some officers got up and talked about what our altruistic project was (we called it that, not philanthropy then), finances, leadership, etc. The President was especially impressive and was running for President of Student Government. I also heard that she had a 4.0! She was an incredible woman and I admired her a lot. Every single woman I met was friendly and fun. Libby was at that party and I was glad to see her there. All the girls I talked to seem to know things about me from high school.. like what clubs I was in, where I was from, etc. That really impressed me too. They seemed to really like me and I really liked them. During the party, we were each presented with a lei and a keychain with the sorority flowers on it. Yes, I wanted to be an Airedale. They kept singing this same song that got so stuck in my head. “I just wanna be an Airedale” I loved that song and hummed it constantly.

We would receive invitations to Preference by Wednesday. I was checking my mailbox over and over all day long and finally.. an envelope. Wait, and another envelope too! Two Preference invitations???

[Ocalagirl]

Originally Posted by AGDee

I was checking my mailbox over and over all day long and finally.. an envelope. Wait, and another envelope too! Two Preference invitations???

That is just SOOOO wrong to leave us hanging like that!! I want more!!!!!!!! Great descriptions