GreekChat.com Forums  

Go Back   GreekChat.com Forums > Recruitment

Recruitment General discussion about recruitment.


Register Now for FREE!
Join GreekChat.com, The Fraternity & Sorority Greek Chat Network. To sign up for your FREE account INSTANTLY fill out the form below!

Username: Password: Confirm Password: E-Mail: Confirm E-Mail:
 
Image Verification
Please enter the six letters or digits that appear in the image opposite.

  I agree to forum rules 

» GC Stats
Members: 325,126
Threads: 115,503
Posts: 2,196,056
Welcome to our newest member, babobygooglet93
» Online Users: 1,021
1 members and 1,020 guests
bjenzdarka5720
Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 01-09-2002, 12:29 PM
dzrose93 dzrose93 is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: America by birth ~ Georgia by the grace of God
Posts: 2,996
Question How do you feel about these NPC changes?

Since the Rho Chi name change has sparked some discussion, I started wondering about other changes that NPC has made in recent years and how sorority members feel about them.

How do you feel about "Rush" becoming "Recruitment,"

"Rushee" becoming "Potential New Member (PNM),"

"Pledge" becoming "New Member,"

the shortening of pledgeship periods,

and the anti-hazing laws that have taken effect in the past 5 to 8 years?

How have they impacted your local chapter or sorority as a whole? Is it a positive change or a negative one, and why do you feel this way?

Discuss!
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 01-09-2002, 01:34 PM
KarenC725 KarenC725 is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Michigan
Posts: 682
Personally, I think they are fine. Its a mouthful to say potential new member and all but names are constantly changing. Recruitment to me almost sounds like a military exercise but if rush connotates bad things then so be it.

Shortening new member periods is a little different in my opinion. I think that there is a learning period and certain things nm should know before initation. I think it should be up to each org to determine that length of time.
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 01-09-2002, 01:42 PM
shadokat shadokat is offline
Moderator
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Reading, PA
Posts: 3,962
Send a message via AIM to shadokat Send a message via Yahoo to shadokat
The term changes don't really bother me. And at our school, we only could have an 8 week pledge period, so the reduction to 6 wasn't a HUGE deal. We just did a little modification. Unfortunately, I cannot learn to say new member orientation instead of pledging, but the rest I've got down

Old habits die hard!
__________________
Be a leader; Be Yourself; Be DPhiE - Esse Quam Videri
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 01-09-2002, 01:42 PM
carnation carnation is offline
Super Moderator
 
Join Date: Aug 2000
Posts: 13,798
I'm definitely against the shortened pledge period. I think that initiation should occur only after the new members have made the required gradepoint after they pledge. I've known far too many people who made great grades in high school who couldn't pass in college!
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 01-09-2002, 03:07 PM
MoxieGrrl MoxieGrrl is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 1,697
I think that NPC is being a little too PC with all of those name changes. I mean, who really cares? No matter what the word, the terms mean the same thing! Pretty soon "recruitment" will get the same connotation as "rush" and "new member orientation" will be the same bad deal as "pledging."

I enjoy the anti-hazing statutes because if they weren't there and my sorority hazed, I'd probably be in big trouble for kicking someone's butt! I mean, a girl can only be told she has fat thighs so much!
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 01-09-2002, 08:39 PM
33girl 33girl is offline
Moderator
 
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Hotel Oceanview
Posts: 34,489
The terminology changes are silly; I'm impartial (I had a small chapter & only pledged 6 weeks); and they suck.

I think all this trying to be politically correct has just made the NPC seem very weak and susceptible to any objections from outside, instead of the strong women that sorority members are told they will become when they join their GLO.

The name changes are a lot of "sound and fury, signifying nothing." The word was changed, but not necessarily the action behind it. For example, the change from rush to recruitment was supposed to convey that the process of bringing new women into the sorority does not just last for a week, but should continue all year, and take away some of the "stigma" of COB at big schools. Well, as you can see from the posts on here, that hasn't happened. Rushee to PNM - misleading, in my opinion, sounds like everyone will receive a bid. As far as pledge to new member, well, it is not what you say, it is how you say it and how you treat people. I really doubt that if there are groups out there who treated their "pledges" horribly, that they did an instant 180 when the terminology changed to "new member."

And what the heck is a bid card called now? Something ridiculous like "membership recruitment acceptance preference administration identification certificate."

I have weighed in on my feelings about the anti-hazing laws enough times that anyone who wants to know my views can search for them - I don't want to repeat myself. I will say that a lot of these laws and policies were not necessarily passed to improve the quality of sisterhood or the strength of individual chapters; they were meant to cover butts. Period.

I would be all for these changes if they solved some of the problems we have, but I haven't seen evidence that they've been anything other than cosmetic.
__________________
It is all 33girl's fault. ~DrPhil
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 01-09-2002, 08:48 PM
aephi alum aephi alum is offline
Moderator
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Crescent City
Posts: 10,014
Too true! A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, and all that

When I was in school (in the mid '90s) we used a hybrid of old and new terms. Rush was rush, and rushees were rushees, and rho chis were rho chis, but pledges were new members, and pledge trainers were new member educators. I think they've gone completely over to the new terminology now, though. And it's a mouthful!

So, any bets on how long it will be before we have to change the term "pref party" because it indicates a sorority prefers some girls over others??

As for shortening of pledge^H^H^H^H^H^Hnew member periods - we had short (6-8 week) NM periods when I was in school. I don't see a problem with it. There is a minimum GPA to pledge; you pledge, you're initiated, and then if you don't make grades it's treated the same as any sister not making grades. I don't see why you should be treated differently for doing poorly in your first semester as, say, your junior year.
__________________
AEΦ ... Multa Corda, Una Causa ... Celebrating Over 100 Years of Sisterhood
Have no place I can be since I found Serenity, but you can't take the sky from me...
Only those who risk going too far, find out how far they can go.
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 01-09-2002, 09:31 PM
KappaStargirl KappaStargirl is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: behind the reference desk
Posts: 519
my thoughts

The shortened pledge period, from 10 weeks to 6, was a godsend for our chapter, which was one of 12 pilot chapters for the Kappa New Member program. We were on 3 10-week trimesters (any high school people out there, AVOID trimester schools if you can), and having a 10-week pledge period meant finals and a semester break during the pledge period. That was AWFUL. With the six-week period, we initiated before finals that trimester...so! much easier. I guess it depends on your academic schedule.

Since Rush was held during our winter term, grades were not an issue. If you had the grades after first term to rush, then you had the grades to initiate. I don't know what it's like for schools that do early fall formal rush.

I too think that "recruitment" sounds very military.

I also agree with 33girl, it does sound like calling them PNM's guarantees a bid, which is definitely an issue at large schools where not everyone gets one.
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 01-10-2002, 08:10 PM
AchtungBaby80 AchtungBaby80 is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Lexington, KY, USA
Posts: 3,185
Send a message via ICQ to AchtungBaby80 Send a message via AIM to AchtungBaby80 Send a message via Yahoo to AchtungBaby80
I'm not sure I like the shortened pledge period, but that just may be because of my situation. I was in the first pledge class after my chapter was reorganized, so our "new member educator" was one of the founding members. Still, our new member meetings were sort of hurried and we didn't go over anything from the book we got when we pledged. Most of what I know about my sorority comes from what I've read on my own. Tradition just wasn't stressed, since we didn't *have* any traditions other than the ones of the old chapter and those were never made known to us. I was really sad because I had nothing to put on the chapter history page in my new member book. I felt like no one was really well informed, but that's not any of the members' fault, I don't think. I just wish we'd had the benefit of a longer time to get to know our national and chapter history...I think I would have liked a semester-long pledge period.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off




All times are GMT -4. The time now is 03:35 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.