More Texas Recruitement Info

[skylark]

From my perspective, 120-150 sounds huge enough to merit polaroids to me.

At my school one group takes polaroids, and I've heard that it has turned many a girl off to them since they are already known as the most barbielike of the sororities. However, the whole "for identification purposes" explanation is a little less believable at my school which has anywhere from 10-30 girls go through formal recruitment.

[bejazd]

Could we back off the photo issue and get to the real issue of concern here...Every single one of the NPC groups with a chapter at the U of Texas campus in Austin knows how to run a successful "big" recruitment without full body photos or teas put on by Miss $1million alum. So why does this stuff go on? It's not perpetuated by collegians, it's perpetuated by alums. If they wanted to put a stop to it, they would. It's a liitle sad for the PNMs that they don't really have a choice, if they want to participate in recruitment they have to play the game the way it is. Reminds me a little of playing monopoly with kids who made up secret rules they swore "everybody" knew about. yeesh.

yeah yeah throw your stuff at me.

[epchick]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

AND, sad to say, not everyone is from Texas (the state, the state!) so it will make things easier for the poor unfortunate people who are not. (!) Say "Texas" or "A&M", and Texans know what you mean - everyone else, maybe not.

Yes, this is the reason why I asked for the distinction. When I would talk to my sisters about my University, they would say "wait, there is more than 1 UT?" They didn't know that UT-Austin wasn't the only UT school.

[SWTXBelle]

Hey, epchick, trying being a Texan who moved to Tennessee. Apparently, they have a UT in Knoxville!!!!!

[FSUZeta]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

Hey, epchick, trying being a Texan who moved to Tennessee. Apparently, they have a UT in Knoxville!!!!!

imagine my surprise when i found out that fsu could also stand for fresno state or frostburg state!!

[nittanyalum]

Originally Posted by bejazd

It's not perpetuated by collegians, it's perpetuated by alums.

And I think that is the heart of the problem -- the alums seem way too involved in what goes on in those collegiate chapters. Why do they still have such a hand in the process? Let go a little and trust your younger sisters to handle the process themselves.

[nittanyalum]

Originally Posted by FSUZeta

imagine my surprise when i found out that fsu could also stand for fresno state or frostburg state!!

And imagine my pain every time Earp mentions "PSU". I just want to scream, "Say Pitt State!!!"

[EE-BO]

Originally Posted by bejazd

Could we back off the photo issue and get to the real issue of concern here...Every single one of the NPC groups with a chapter at the U of Texas campus in Austin knows how to run a successful "big" recruitment without full body photos or teas put on by Miss $1million alum. So why does this stuff go on? It's not perpetuated by collegians, it's perpetuated by alums. If they wanted to put a stop to it, they would. It's a liitle sad for the PNMs that they don't really have a choice, if they want to participate in recruitment they have to play the game the way it is. Reminds me a little of playing monopoly with kids who made up secret rules they swore "everybody" knew about. yeesh.

This is the kind of post that I was talking about.

Who the hell are you to make that judgment? If you think a chapter's own alumni have no business having an influence on their chapter- then why should you?

The "miss $1million alum" comment is the dead giveaway that you obviously don't have the background to or interest in entering this sphere of existence you seem to hate hate or the society that precedes and follows it. So I have to wonder why you care so much about it.

Your comments come off as jealous- maybe not the intent- but that is how it sounds.

Edited to be a little more reasonable in my comments.

[bejazd]

See, I knew I was going to get that reaction from someone. Read carefully. Did I say they SHOULD change? No. I said they COULD if they WANTED to. That's up to the the campus PH and the orgs themselves to decide.

As a regular, ordinary, dues paying alum I have a stake in what my organization does at the International policy level because those decisions reflect on my membership. So I support my sorority, financially and otherwise, but I don't get involved in membership selection decisions. That's the right, the responsibility and the privilege of the collegiate members.

I didn't come up with the million dollar alum thing- somebody else did. I don't know if that really goes on or not nor do I care! It would be as inappropriate for Miss $100 dollar alum to think she has a"right" to be involved in collegiate recruitment decisions as Miss Zero dollar alum or anyone else.

Alums and Alum PHs can best help PNMs and the NPC system by positively promoting the benefits of membership in their community and helping interested women attain membership, whether that's securing references or holding conversation/interviewing skills/resume writing workshops or raising money to provide scholarship assistance to deserving women.

Edited to be a little more reasonable in my comments.

[Benzgirl]

Originally Posted by nittanyalum

And imagine my pain every time Earp mentions "PSU". I just want to scream, "Say Pitt State!!!"

Well, Earp would rather occupy his mouth with alcholic bevvies berfore he would speak excess words.

[LampLady]

I have read with interest the comments of members on both sides of the issue of TX recruitment practices and just had to sit here and smile. By way of background, I pledged back in the day (1970's) at a large state university in the Northeast and was a member of a successful single letter chapter of one of the largest sororities. We had limited alumni involvement in rush, other than from recent alums enrolled in grad school; with the exception of a group of about 5-6 ladies that continued to help out with newsletters, initiation, and house corporation activities through the years. I only recall having about 6 legacies pledge in the entire 4 years. Recommendations were seldom received until after pledging, when we requested them for our selected pledges from the reference committee for therir area. Membership selection was done entirely by the active members...without pictures, pre-rush fashion shows, and recommendations.

In 1985, I moved to the Houston area and joined my local Alumni Panhellenic and began to truly understand Panhellenic culture shock. These women were very involved in their individual sorority's activities and took their responsibility to submit recommendations very seriously. Girls were given training sessions on how to prepare for rush, including fashion shows by local boutique stores to show what kind of outfit to wear on each day of recruitment. Each girl is to prepare a resume, that includes the often mentioned pictures, along with lists of academic credentials, activities, honors, and volunteer activities. It also requests parents' names and Greek affiliations and occupations. (In the South, "what your Daddy does" is extremely important. I couldn't even tell you the occupations of most of my sisters or neighbors. Where I come from. ..nobody cared or would even ask.) Although my particular sorority did not request this, my fellow Panhel members of other sororities have told me that their groups have the reference committees rate each of the girls with a score. Most sent in all of their resume and recommendation forms/letters on each girl...some sororities at some schools were instrcted to "only send us your top three"!! This was baffling to me at the time. It was explained to me that many of the top groups at schools such as UT, LSU, and Ole Miss had "geographical quotas"...i.e. they will only pledge 1 girl from XYZ high school or they save 3 slots for girls from ABC wealthy suburb. I wasn't sure whether to believe this at the time, but the results seemed to back it up. The women would be extremely proud and celebrate when "one of their girls" actually got a bid to one of the "top tier" groups at certain schools...and there really was usually only 1 girl! When I inquired as to why the deadline to send in references was so early for certain schools, I was told that the groups pour over the resumes and post the pictures of PNMs all over the house to promote their favorite girls, if they know them personally. With pledge classes from 60-80 girls, it is apparently extremely important to get the support of as many actives as possible to be high emough on the bid lists.

Legacies are very, very common in the South, as there is a very strong family sorority tradition. (Girls are known to transfer schools if they do not get a bid to their legacy chapter.) Unfortunately, I hear that chapters, more often than not, have more legacies going through rush than they have quota slots. As you can imagine, this causes some very unhappy alumnae Moms.

When I was the local Alumne Panhellenic President about 6 or 8 years ago, I matter-of-factly read the NPC resolutions/pacts/agreements regarding the information that was to be collected from PNMs at one of meetings. When I mentioned that pictures, ACT/SAT scores, and parents' occupations were not on the list and suggested that we take these items off of our sample resume form, I was met with looks of horror from my fellow members. After a lengthly discussion, they decided that we should still include them "as an option" and tell the girls at the information sessions that chapters "strongly suggest including this information"....so much for following NPC resolutions. Traditions don't die easily in the South.

So much for my verbosity...I just thought I would shed some light on things that I had no idea about when I moved below the Mason-Dixon line. I guess we can both learn from each other. We are less superficial in the North, yet chapters are larger and have more members (on average) in the South. Go figure...it's all interesting

[LadyLonghorn]

But maybe we don't want to change. We have a system that works well for us at a very academically and socially challenging campus that's steeped in tradition. What works here may not work elsewhere.

[Just interested]

And that is the beauty of the Greek system. Every campus is different, and what works well for some might not work well for others. When you go through "rush" at UT you you know what it's about and you follow the rules that have been set. Tradition is everything in Texas. And... we like it like that and besides it keeps our alumnae involved for a lifetime.

[SWTXBelle]

LOVEinZTA - re-read bejazd's last post. As she says, IF they wanted to change. Not - they should change. As for the "what parents do for a living" - no, you wouldn't be asked. In my experience, that's one thing alumnae take into account when writing recs. Some chapters put more importance on "ability to pay" than others. And the alums she was talking about are not necessarily the ones who have "direct contact" with the chapter during recruitment. Does anyone really argue that UT alumnae are not very involved in recruitment at UT, perhaps at the APH level rather than the collegiate?Just clarifying . . .

I think that if UTs system works for them, great. But I do think EVERY campus and group needs to ask themselves periodically if a system that is working can be improved - and then decide if that means it should be revamped. Tradition is great, but times do change, and sometimes that means the system may need tweaking. Sometimes it doesn't.

UT is a very unique campus - such a long-standing successful Greek system in the midst of what is argueably one of the most liberal campuses in the state. I would like to see the system larger (i.e., have a larger percentage of the student body involved), but given the demographics of the campus I don't know if that is possible. So UT alumna - don't get defensive about the system when outsiders (or alumnae, for that matter) bring up points that may be valid.

Back to the point of the thread - it is VERY important that any pnm going through UT recruitment be up to date and ready to deal with the system there, whether or not the system itself is ideal.

[LPIDelta]

Originally Posted by LampLady

When I was the local Alumne Panhellenic President about 6 or 8 years ago, I matter-of-factly read the NPC resolutions/pacts/agreements regarding the information that was to be collected from PNMs at one of meetings. When I mentioned that pictures, ACT/SAT scores, and parents' occupations were not on the list and suggested that we take these items off of our sample resume form, I was met with looks of horror from my fellow members. After a lengthly discussion, they decided that we should still include them "as an option" and tell the girls at the information sessions that chapters "strongly suggest including this information"....so much for following NPC resolutions. Traditions don't die easily in the South.

I know of a story where a delegate to a Texas alumnae panhellenic wanted the APH group to get involved with UT's (and other big schools in Texas) collegiate panhellenic in order to review the recruitment rules, all of them, as well as the NPC resolutions. She then wanted us to make sure that all our member groups with chapters at UT (and the other alumnae panhellenics in the area) knew and understood the rules so that "everyone was on a equal playing field." All good intentions.

She was laughed at and pretty much run off.

I don't know how it all came to be, but alumnae are involved in what I will call "pre-recruitment". Its so common in some areas that if one alumnae association does choose to follow the rules and not take pnms to lunch or do other meetings with them, it comes across as if that NPC isn't interested in the pnm. And its all a violation of "the rules" but you might imagine what the response would be if someone ratted on the groups doing this. So people get in the game--and it continues.