Is anyone else's rush experience like ....

[33girl]

Originally Posted by Buttonz

O, don't get me wrong, I understand where you are coming from, and what you said might be for the best. But I also think that getting these groups to go national, with a HQ overseeing them, a lot of things will have to be changed. Also, it would be nice ot have everyone having to participate in formal rush, but hat is more of a fault of the schools then of the local/NPC debate.

And the fact that they DON'T participate in formal rush probably creates even more of a nationals/locals schism. There are schools where the nationals and locals do everything together as far as rush/panhel is concerned, and there are probably girls rushing who wouldn't know (or care) which was which because everything's pretty much seamless.

[Buttonz]

Originally Posted by AEPhiSierra

This particular group was founded with the intention of going national. I know they were specifically rejected by one group they originally had in mind. I am not sure if they pursued other groups. At this point I don't believe the organization could affiliate with a npc because too many of their members would not be eligible i.e. gpa's, not full time student etc.

As far as I remember back in the day....they didn't pursue other groups and once they got rejected by the one that they pursued they were anti-going national and put down any groups there were any chance they got, and this came from both actives and alumnae.

Originally Posted by 33girl

And the fact that they DON'T participate in formal rush probably creates even more of a nationals/locals schism. There are schools where the nationals and locals do everything together as far as rush/panhel is concerned, and there are probably girls rushing who wouldn't know (or care) which was which because everything's pretty much seamless.

If this school made them participate in FR, I doubt there would be as many problems with the Greek system as their is, but they are allowed to do whatever they want. That is something that is a fault of the school

[SoCalGirl]

At schools where locals are associate members of Panhell and participate in FR are the PNMs made fully aware of which is which? And, do the NPC agreements really truly apply to the locals too? I'm just thinking of what if a PNM knows that she absolutely has zero interest in joining a local (or vice versa); why should she be forced to go to their events?

[33girl]

Originally Posted by SoCalGirl

At schools where locals are associate members of Panhell and participate in FR are the PNMs made fully aware of which is which? And, do the NPC agreements really truly apply to the locals too? I'm just thinking of what if a PNM knows that she absolutely has zero interest in joining a local (or vice versa); why should she be forced to go to their events?

Bloomsburg U in PA has half locals, half nationals. AFAIK the unanimous agreements on rushing completely apply to the locals, the locals hold officer positions in Panhel, etc. They are full members of Panhel, so why should rushees be EXEMPTED from their events? I'm sure there are also women going through rush who have zero interest in joining (example) groups that don't have chapters in California, so should they be allowed to skip ASA and AST's parties?

If joining a national and not a local is that important to a rushee, she needs to research and ask questions at rush.

Locals that are just associate members usually hold their rush apart from when NPCs do. That's a whole different animal.

[IvySpice]

Bloomsburg U in PA has half locals, half nationals. AFAIK the unanimous agreements on rushing completely apply to the locals

Same story at Dartmouth.

[PeppyGPhiB]

Originally Posted by PhoenixAzul

< Note, not attacking Buttonz, she just happens to have the unfortunate quote >

I understand what you're saying, but I don't know if it would fix the problem to go national, wouldn't the local "traditions" (as dubious as they are ) stick around, just with some poor NPC's letters attached?. Just changing the letters and putting in some programming doesn't fix deep ingrained internal problems. I think it would have to be the full disolution of the group, meaning let it be dormant and then colonize a new (local or NPC or whatever) many years later. Perhaps greater oversight by Greek Life/Student Affairs?

I always go through the doomsday scenario of Otterbein's system going all-national. I say doomsday because I think that a LOT of women would be really, truly, seriously heartbroken to have their 70+ year old history wiped out and replaced by something else that they never pledged fidelity to, especially if it was simply mandated that we MUST be national by someone outside of our sorority. It would just hurt. I know that's not what you're getting at , but I can understand why people would fight to stay local. If it was of the general concensus of the campus sorority council and chapter members/alum, then ok, yeah, people will still be upset but eventually will suck it up, but if its administrators or just the NPC's on campus telling the locals/regionals to be national, there's gonna be some friction. The concept of "being local" is sort of isolating, and the defending of their existance is something that most local chapters (not looking for colonization) take very, very very seriously. Call it culture, I suppose.

My campus decided to switch from all-locals to all-nationals in one swoop. I've been told it was because of hazing and the school's displeasure with having no real oversight re: rules, standards, etc. They just thought having (inter)national organizations would keep local chapters accountable and that the national reputations of NPC/NIC would actually draw more students into Greek Life (which it did). Almost all of the NPC sororities now on campus were orginally locals, meaning members of the local were actually initiated into Gamma Phi Beta along with the first pledge class (my class). So, some were members of both the local and NPC sorority.

The transition appeared to go pretty smoothly. All of the organizations sent consultants who remained with the chapters for the first full academic year and helped us learn new rules, bylaws, election procedures, ritual, songs, and international traditions. Some of the older members (mostly juniors and seniors) were a little resistant to change, but even they mostly went along with everything.

That said, for the years I was on campus, I became familiar with many of our local's traditions. Gamma Phi actually encouraged us to adopt the local's colors and motto as our chapter colors/motto. Our chapter's candle-pass song was actually written by the soon-to-be-fiance of one of our local's members from years past, so we retained the song and the chapter still sings it...it's a song no other Gamma Phi chapter sings, and is therefore very special to the chapter. So, going national does not always mean abandoning your roots.

ETA: although hazing supposedly occurred in the local system on my campus, my chapter of Gamma Phi NEVER hazed. I don't know if the local did before, but if it did, that was one tradition that did not stick around.