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  #1  
Old 10-09-2002, 11:17 PM
KappaKittyCat KappaKittyCat is offline
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Anonymity?

I'm from a small, residential campus with unhoused sororities. Formal Recruitment is deferred until Winter Term of freshman year. This means that Rho Chis (which we just call Recruitment Counselors or RCs) have to be anonymous for the entirety of Fall Term as well as the first two weeks of Winter Term. It's a very big sacrifice, obviously. In the past few years we've had lots of trouble with RCs' blowing their cover by hanging out with their sisters in public all the time. We've had even more trouble finding women who are willing to go undercover and be RCs in the first place. The RCs do nothing to bond as a sisterhood; they're all just XYZs in disguise.

This year we have fabulous RCs from all three chapters who are doing a great job keeping freshman women turned on to the possibilities of Greek life. They've even started mingling and hanging out as an RC sisterhood. Just about all of them are rooming with another person from their own sorority, but inter-chapter rooming isn't too rare at this school, so that's acceptable. However, these ladies are fast growing frustrated with the fact that they can only hang out with their roomies and not with anybody else.

What brought the situation to a head was the fact that Kappa is having a retreat this weekend up at the school's lodge in Door County (the thumb of Wisconsin). The lodge sleeps 70 and my chapter is small, so we're not the only ones going up this weekend; we'll be joined by the flute studio and the cast of the fall musical. Both groups include freshman women, so our RCs assumed that they could not come along because they'd blow their cover. The other two chapters are going up on the same weekend about a month from now. They are considerably larger and together fill up the entire lodge, so there will be no freshman women there and their RCs can go along. Our RCs were very disappointed that they could not come, but the chapter got them gift certificates for dinner out together, etc., so they could have a good time together while we were gone. They were pragmatic about it and figured that it was all part of the sacrifice.

Panhel got wind of this and decided that the situation was unfair all around. If one group's RCs couldn't go, then none of them should be able to go. Of course all the other RCs pitched a fit about this. So they had their meeting last night and decided to change the requirements for anonymity. RCs may not have any visible signs of affiliation and they may not tell women to which organization they belong, but they may hang out with their sisters in public during Fall Term and each may go on her chapter's retreat. Once Winter Term starts, they must be 100% disaffilliated, not hanging out with any other Greek women, until Formal Recruitment is over. They did this to make it easier on the RCs and because they think that it will increase the number of women volunteering for the job.

I have very mixed feelings on this. On the one hand, it's much easier on the RCs, and of course I'm happy that ours get to come along this weekend. But on the other hand, in the span of 24 hours most of the freshmen have figured out the RCs' affiliations. Furthermore, this opens the door for a whole style of dirty rushing that we've never had to deal with on this campus. I think that in the end this could wind up seriously compromising the Formal Recruitment process.

Ideally, of course, we'd have a Fall Term Formal Recruitment and the RCs would only have to be anonymous for the first two weeks of school. However, that's not going to happen on this campus. I can't really do anything about the situation because I'm not on Panhel. (Nor will my chapter let me near it; I'm far too radical and I'd do nothing but make waves. Excuse me for thinking that the NPC recommendations should be followed!) Our Greek Advisor is a Greek herself, but she's rather timid. She is working to move us into compliance with NPC regulations and recommendations, but she's all for doing it slowly; meanwhile, chapters are suffering because of it. Our RCs weren't even anonymous in the first place until a few years ago and I'm afraid that this is nothing but one gigantic step backwards.

So what do you all think? Is there anything that I might do? Is the subject even worth broaching in Chapter or with Panhel? It sounds like it's pretty much a done deal already. I'm not going to go over anyone's head, but what would NPC say about this? I'm still not sure how to react, and I'd like some feedback.

*Edited with corrections and clarifications*

KappaStarGirl has informed me that RCs were anonymous until 1998-99, when they weren't for a year. The next year they became anonymous again and have been since. In 1998-99 they decided not to be anonymous. The 1999-2000 group decided to be anonymous, and then NPC found out about this and for 2000-2001 said that they had to be anonymous, whether they wanted to or not. It used to be that Panhellenic Exec was always anonymous, but as of 2001-2002 they are no longer disaffiliated. Because they have less interaction with PNMs, it doesn't matter as much whether they're affiliated or not. Our bylaws state that they should "Show pride in membership but behave in an impartial manner."

We are on trimesters. Each term is ten weeks of classes and one of exams. So the RCs are anonymous for the first 13 weeks of school and affiliated for the final 20. In reality it's less than half the year, but it's still a long time.

NPC has offered to send a consulting team if we'll request one. They even offered to pay for it because our Panhel has no money. But the other two organizations are stalling, and ours isn't really even pushing for it. This is just the latest in a series of issues, and I think they need to get in here ASAP and fix this crap.

The administration hath decreed that we shall have a deferred recruitment. There's no getting around that, regardless of what NPC/NIC recommend or what the individual chapters desire.
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Last edited by KappaKittyCat; 10-10-2002 at 02:15 AM.
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  #2  
Old 10-09-2002, 11:33 PM
valkyrie valkyrie is offline
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I don't really have anything exciting to say, but I think it's terrible that the RCs are supposed to be all undercover for over half a year, and I would say that overall, it's good that they can go on the retreat. I think it would be terrible for them to have to miss the retreat, because it's probably one of those fun things that people will talk about from time to time, and those who missed it will always end up feeling left out.

They really should change the system. How do other schools with deferred rush do it?

As a side note, I think Door County is absolutely gorgeous in the fall! I hope you have a wonderful time, and if you get a chance, stop by the Inn at Cedar Crossing (I'm pretty sure I'm remembering the name right) and get the cherry pie with sugar cookie crust. OMG, it is PURE BLISS.
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  #3  
Old 10-10-2002, 12:09 AM
Dove Gal Dove Gal is offline
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How about having a RC retreat for the RC's? Instead of them hanging out with their sisters, they could start to bond as a recruitment team and even find some great friends within that group. Everyone wants to have a sucessful rush, and by bending the rules for the groups so they can spend time with thier sisters, what does that say about the Panhel. The potential new members can tell if there is tension within the RC groups. Why does Panhel spend do a weekend for the RC's at the same place were the other chapters are having their retreats? Just an idea.
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  #4  
Old 10-10-2002, 12:24 AM
ToBeSororityGrl ToBeSororityGrl is offline
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Oh wow that is quite a mess.

I know going through recruitment how much our Gamma Chi's missed their sisters. They told us that after the girls would run down the hill into their sorority on bid day, that when the Gamma Chi's would reveal that their sorority would pretty much be going up the hill to get them because they missed them so much. I saw it first hand in classes when I knew which gamma chi was in which and how she didn't sit next to her 2 sisters but after bid day they sat together and talked (it was so sweet). I think it's horrible to have to be like that for half a year. How do you kind of quit being friends with someone? I can hardly do it for 3 days, but a semester in college, wow that's harsh!

I actually knew my gamma chi's affiliation and had no problems talking with her. I loved her sorority but I told her I didn't think I would get invited back because I didn't click with some people and she understood that and offered several times that I talk with maybe another gamma chi if I felt uncomfortable in the least bit, but I didn't.

I honestly don't see the problem in knowing which sorority your gamma chi is in. I knew where most of them were because when you're an upperclassmen you see them in shirts like the current freshmen would for deferred rush. I guess maybe I'm a trusting person and can sense when someone is going to falter or "dirty rush," in this case.

I don't see a real perfect solution. I honestly like the idea of deferred rush because then the girls who are unsure about greek life, get a semester to see what it's like and decide if it's for them and get aclimated to college life. This year in recruitment I heard a few sororities talk about the girls who transferred and that might eleviate accepting girls who are going to leave after a semester. But, I honestly don't know.

Open question - wouldn't it be nice to go through recruitment with total outsiders? Like people who aren't greek at all, like advisors or something who take you from house to house and that way you could meet the gamma chi's on a real basis and so forth.

I guess until recruitment is "all on your own, XYZ's party is at 5 be there or be square," there is no picture perfect "rho chi" thing.
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  #5  
Old 10-10-2002, 01:06 AM
nyrdrms nyrdrms is offline
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We also have deferred recruitment here and when it was implimented two years ago the issue of disaffiliation came up. Originally the intent was to have a decrease over time, starting about a month or so into the semester and then they would slowly become less and less visible as belonging to any particular sorority. It was to start with letters and go until they were completely disaffiliated. It didn't fly.

Before the first deferred recruitment, this idea was shot down. What we have instead is that our Rho Gammas are being selected now. I think the applications were due today. So right now, no one knows who will be disaffiliated (beyond the Panhellenic executive board, that is). And the disaffiliation doesn't take effect until after exams.

Granted, the potential new members can easily figure out who is in which organization, but with the upperclassmen that go through recruitment (and we usually have quite a few), they're going to know anyway. If the potentials are good sports about it though, they won't ruin the surprise for others....and perhaps that's something that should be mentioned to the potentials by the RCs prior to the first recruitment party.

Hope it all works out for you guys!!
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  #6  
Old 10-10-2002, 01:54 AM
Eupolis Eupolis is offline
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Just a few quick snippets for now. And I should say for the benefit of the public reading this that I'm strictly an observer to this matter -- I'm male. I'm a member (alumnus) of a fraternity at KappaKittyCat's school.

On what authority does Panhel make decisions that contravene the directives of NPC? Do they remember what NPC said a few years back? Panhel is not especially renowned for its recordkeeping abilities.

Opinion in these parts (so far, and I suspect L.B. will agree) is that this is a rash and poor decision. I hear that the 1999-2000 panhel went back to anonymity very resolutely after abysmal results with the 1998-99 experiment. This decision, though it pretends to be designed to preserve anonymity, does not in fact preserve it. It only pays lip service to the idea, while everyone knows the truth. It makes Panhel look like an organization with useless rules.

I suspect, on the basis of what I've heard, that you may find that the negative impact of this decision will outweigh the negative impacts of the system that was already in place.

If you were to push for a consulting group from NPC, you would have trouble getting Panhel to acquiesce. They may see it as an indictment that they don't know what they're doing, even though it doesn't necessarily amount to that.

While there is a risk of new kinds of dirty rushing, there remains the fact that most people there aim to choose sororities for valid personal reasons. One can hope that these reasons would still predominate in PNMs' thinking and that no one would intentionally skew their thinking.

I have doubts that you would get all 8 GLOs to agree to do a fall rush, and I wonder if doing so in defiance of school policy would constitute a violation that would jeopardize access to housing under the formal group housing policy there. As you know, I'm personally very skeptical of the idea of fall rush on the LU campus.
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  #7  
Old 10-10-2002, 02:42 AM
XOMichelle XOMichelle is offline
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Rho Chi's

Hmm..
Here at my school, since greek life is so small, most freshman women don't know what sororities there are on campus before rush. Rho Chi's are not required to be disaffiliated like at most schools. They can't do chapter things at the end of winter and the begining of spring quarter. I can see where this can be a problem if a PNM is uncomfortable talking to her Rho Chi if they are talking about that chapter. However, you can't really expect girls to not be a part of their sorority for half (or in our case, more than half) a year. That's not fair to them or their orgs. My school seems to be larger than yours, KappaKittyCat (we have about 7,000 undergrads), and I imagine secrets like that are easier to keep. I understand the implications of dirty rushing, and believe me, my chapter feels the brunt of that the most here. However, it sounds miserable to be a Rho Chi at your school. Why put those women through that?

-M
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  #8  
Old 10-10-2002, 03:17 AM
sugar and spice sugar and spice is offline
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(Because I have a couple Greek friends at KappaKitty's school, I'm pretty familiar with their recruitment system.)

Here's my suggestion: I know that because your school is on the trimester system, your rush week falls when most schools are still on winter break. So is there any way you could recruit girls from other schools to be your Rho Chis (from chapters that aren't on your campus, preferably)? The UW systems schools and the University of Minnesota are both still on winter break for the duration of your recruitment week, and I'm sure there are many other schools near you that are too.

I've heard of some schools using recent alumni or NPHC sorority members to be Rho Chis too, since they're more likely to be impartial about the whole process. I'm pretty sure your school doesn't have any NPHC sororities, but maybe you could use members of, say, SAI who would be more likely to be pro-Greek but impartial between the social sororities?

I hope you guys find a way to work this out -- I know there's a lot of dirty rushing at your school and this doesn't sound like it's going to help much.
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  #9  
Old 10-10-2002, 09:07 AM
aephi alum aephi alum is offline
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When I was a rho chi, rush started pretty much the second that freshmen arrived on campus. There were summer programs for freshmen, so I had to deaffiliate from the last day of spring finals through the end of rush. I wasn't allowed to talk to anyone affiliated with any sorority - which was a little difficult since I was on campus, and particularly during rush since one of my suitemates was in a sorority, but I had plenty of unaffiliated and male friends, so that was ok. And we did some rho chi activities during work week, so we had the chance to bond a little.

(Sidebar: I boxed up all my sorority stuff for the summer. It is amazing the amount of stuff you can accumulate in 3 years )

My school is now going to deferred rush. My understanding is that, during the fall, rho chis can't be seen publicly with more than 1 or 2 sisters, but they can go to closed events, like formals and retreats. Once everyone returns from winter break, rho chis can't interact with affiliated women at all. Hopefully this will be a good balance between making it difficult for freshmen to figure out the rho chis' affiliations and allowing the rho chis to have some level of interaction with their sororities during the fall.
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  #10  
Old 10-10-2002, 09:13 AM
KappaKittyCat KappaKittyCat is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by aephi alum
My school is now going to deferred rush. My understanding is that, during the fall, rho chis can't be seen publicly with more than 1 or 2 sisters, but they can go to closed events, like formals and retreats. Once everyone returns from winter break, rho chis can't interact with affiliated women at all. Hopefully this will be a good balance between making it difficult for freshmen to figure out the rho chis' affiliations and allowing the rho chis to have some level of interaction with their sororities during the fall.
This is the arrangement we have had until now. The question came up because there will be freshman women hanging 'round the periphery of the Kappa retreat and it'll be pretty obvious which group they're with.

I'd be all for getting sorority women from other campuses or area alumnae to serve as RCs. I'm not sure Panhel would go for that, however.
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Old 10-10-2002, 09:46 AM
33girl 33girl is offline
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I pretty much agree with everything TBSG said. I also love the idea of alums as RC's.

When I say I'm for deferred rush, and I am, that doesn't mean I condone separation of freshmen from Greeks, these poor RC's having to be sister-less for a semester, etc. Let them be anonymous for the week or so before rush and that's it. We've heard some rushees on here say that they figured out who their RC was before signing their bid, and I don't believe any of them said "My RC is XYZ and she is so awesome/heinous that I have to be XYZ/would rather chew tinfoil than go XYZ."

I guess what I am trying to say is that if you are truly acting in a Panhellenic spirit you shouldn't have to take off your letters to advise a rushee to make the best decision for her. Happy rushees making good decisions only strengthens the system all around.
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Old 10-10-2002, 10:37 AM
lionlove lionlove is offline
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On my campus, rush is deferred until the first semester of sophmore year. Rush takes place in the middle of september and rho chis are disaffiliated for the first few weeks of the school year until right after bids are handed out. Rho chis are affiliated with their chapter for the whole school year proceeding rush so by the time a girl goes thrugh rush, she pretty much knows where her rho chi is a sister.

The important thing for me when I was a rho chi wasn't complete anonymity, although I tried as hard as I could to remain anonymous, but rather creating a comfortable atmosphere for my girls. I reassured my girls over and over again that they could tell me whatever they wanted about any chapter on campus and I would keep it completely confidential. Even though my girls figured out pretty quickly where I was a sister (on my campus, each house has a very different personality so it isn't hard to guess) they knew that they could talk to me about anything.

My point is, it's not the end of the world if the rushee figures out where a rho chi is a sister as long as that rho chi is trustworthy and makes the rushee feel comfortable.
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Old 10-10-2002, 01:04 PM
sororitygirl2 sororitygirl2 is offline
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I can not believe that Rho Chi's have to disaffiliate for an entire semester! I have thought about the pros and cons of deferred recruitment, but this detail never even crossed my mind.

I think they should be allowed to hang out with their sisters, just not wear letters or talk about their chapter to PNMs. I guess this basically would translate into the rules all sisters go by during "silence" periods. I mean, most girls only have 8 (or with deferred recruitment, 7) semesters as an active sister -- it is not really very fair to ask them to give up one of them!

I really like what Lionlove said. The important part isn't so much that girls are anonymous, it is that they are trustworthy (and will not dirty rush the PNMs) and caring (so that they will encourage the PNMs to open up to them, an will guide them properly).
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Old 10-10-2002, 01:40 PM
FuzzieAlum FuzzieAlum is offline
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We had deferred rush and used alums and Greek life office employees for Rho Chis, and I felt that worked quite well. Our Panhel folks were disaffiliated, but not for the first semester, and I don't think that ever caused a problem. The chapters have to trust Panhel to conduct rush in a fair fashion, but Panhel doesn't have much influence over where girls join - they don't establish a bond like Rho Chis do.

The thing is it is impossible to keep all Rho Chi affiliations secret. You're bound to have a few upperclassmen rushing, for example, and they probably know the Rho Chis. Or a fraternity member might slip and say something.

The reason for disaffiliation makes sense, however. Even if my Rho Chi was a wonderful, unbiased woman, just knowing she was an ABC would make me feel uncomfortable crying to her because I was only invited back to ABC and DEF, and I hated both groups. It would close down one avenue of communication.

But it simply isn't fair to tell women they can't be a part of their sorority - they can't hang out with their best friends - for half a year. The price is too high for what you get out of it, especially if it fails and the rushees know what their Rho Chi is.

So you have a couple of choices:
-Use members of non-NPC sororities. Downside: They have a steep learning curve, and is there an incentive for them to participate?
-Use alums. Downside: Some alums are no more unbiased than actives.
-Use sisters who are not disaffiliated first semester. Downside: Most girls will know where those girls belong.
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Old 10-10-2002, 05:17 PM
maggieaxid maggieaxid is offline
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I was a former Rho Chi....

We were on a 4-1-4 System....you go to school for 4 months, you have the option of taking one intense class for 1 month (except freshman have to), and then you finish out the rest of the year for 4 more months. Rush was held during the "Winter Term Break" (The 1 month off for most upperclassmen).

The Rho Chis were named in early november, and then asked to dissafiliate the Monday returning from Thanksgiving break. Our Rho Chis include women from NPC and NPHC (the NPHC girls were the BEST RHO CHIS EVER! Bc they were so impartial to the NPC sororities and gave honest criticism of the recruitment structure).

Our Rho Chis are treated as a sisterhood...when you become a Rho Chi, you got your "Rho-your-boat-buddy" (it always rained and flooded the greek courts, hence the boat theme), we had our own little initiation ritual, we got bright red ponchos, with our new letters "PX" on them, sweat shirts, t-shirts, everything Panhellenic and Rho Chi stuff that had been passed down. Our symbols were the Row Boat, Oars, and rain hats, and a saying "LIPS"-- Living in Panhellenic Spirit. We made mugs for each other and picture frames, we even held our very own date party that was in Greensboro that we could invite fraternity men to. It was awesome and being chosen to be a Rho Chi became a HUGE HONOR at my school.

What I am trying to illustrate is that this temporary sisterhood really helps you get through not having contact with your sisters. As much as the PX's love each other, nothing would replace our bonds of sisterhood we had with our true sisters. And yes on bid day, we all ran down to our houses, beyond excited and welcomed back...but it was also really sad to say goodbye to being a PX.

But we still think we are "Pretty Fly for a Rho Chi"
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