Panhellenic & "Dirty Rushing"

[skylark]

Has anyone else had problems getting panhellenic to have teeth when it comes to dealing with dirty rushing incidents? It seems like every year a certain larger sorority gets away with breaking silent periods, having COB events at fraternity houses (that are not dry) or telling girls to blow of formal recruitment and to snap bid later. Nothing ever happens to them -- I think mostly because no one is sure what type of punishment is standard since it is a small campus. Also, there also always seems to be an "explanation" that goes something like "well we thought that we could do that if we _____(fill in the blank)_____" or "oh, we [the reps] forgot to tell all of our members about that rule"

So my question is, what have any of you viewed to be the most effective deterrents for dirty rushing? I'd like to have some ideas for if (or when) the problems come up this year...

Thanks everyone!

[MerryGPhiB]

In my experience, once sorority members are "educated" on the green book ( NPC) it's amazing how the excuses are reduced. Oh by the way, so are the infractions.

I would encourage all Panhellenic officers, boards , advisors etc. to have a general meeting with all greek women and an education training on Panhellenic dos and donts. It could be done is a fun and interactive manner.
Part of the challenge is there is alot of assumption- that everyone knows the "rules " and accountability is not enforced.

If we as greek women are to move forward it's time to KNOW and follow the green book! And Panhellenic guidelines for recruitment-- ok, I'm getting off my soapbox now---

[PenguinTrax]

If you haven't done so already, contact your NPC delegate about the situation. They will get in contact with your campus NPC advisor and handle it. That's what they are there for. Use them.

[skylark]

Penguin: the NPC advisor knows because she is at every meeting (she is the one who informs me, a chapter advisor, about what is going on at most of the meetings). There are several reasons why (don't want to go into them here) but she is the kind of person who just wants to give all the girls the benefit of the doubt when something goes wrong, so to speak.

I guess I am just looking for ideas from other Panhellenic chapters on what sanctions work and don't work. No one has ever had any sanctions at this panhellenic and so the girls, perhaps rightfully so, don't pay any attentions to the rules because they know nothing will happen if they just ignore them. One or two of the groups have had dirty rushing reported every year for about the last 5-6 years and I am sick of seeing the sororities who play by the rules anyway have the lowest numbers.

Any ideas?

[PenguinTrax]

If the NPC Advisor is at every meeting and does nothing, then it is up to your sorority's NPC representative to escalate the issue.

[33girl]

^^^ Agreed. Your sorority's national Panhellenic rep, that is.

The sanctions that I could think of are social probation, not participating in intramurals, not participating in Homecoming.

[LaneSig]

//slight hijack//

At my campus, the 'dirty rushing' charge was turned into: "Oh, that chapter is just having sour grapes because they didn't do as well during rush."

How can the chapter making the accusation fight this attitude among NPC? Does it just end up being a She said-She said situation?

[KSUViolet06]

On my campus, the infractions themselves were deterrent enough since money for infractions isn't part of the chapter's budget. So if your chapter got one, the money had to be pulled from some other budget area like social, formal, favors, etc. So you had less money for other things.

As far as the COB parties with alcohol at fraternity houses, that has a much stiffer penalty. In addition to any penalties from the chapter's HQ, we also could face social probation (meaning NO Homecoming, Greek Week, socials, or formals) for a year.