"No Frills" Recruitment - Need advice

[astralis]

For as long as I know of, our campus has had a very eventful recruitment - three nights of water party, skit party, and pref party, each of which had themes, coordinated dress, decorations, and other planned revelry. We've heard about the campuses that have 'no frills' recruitment where girls are basically put in a blank room and educated that way, and we've always been very grateful that we're allowed to do such fun things to entertain our new girls.

Well.. all things must come to an end, right?
Our campus has a new Greek Life Coordinator this year, and he is completely wrecking into our system. Now if we want shirts (be it for fun, for fraternity mixers, for sorority mixers, anything) we must get them approved by (we assume) him. Our fraternities on campus have some rather funny double entendres on their shirts. Sororities don't, but apparently we need to get them approved anyway, just in case.
And now he's introducing a no-frills rush system. We aren't entirely sure the specific changes made, but we know we can't have themes, we can't have unique shirts (must be plain with just our letters) and we aren't allowed to perform a skit anymore.

I'd like opinions, please, from people who have done the no-frills deal before, and people who went through rush in such a system. If anyone has been on a campus that switched over, those opinions would be especially appreciated. Everyone here is quite distraught over the whole situation. I know there are pros and cons for both sides, but right now we're just disappointed.
Thanks.

[33girl]

I'm assuming he's approving the fraternities' shirts as well? Obviously, he is including the sororities as to not practice gender discrimination. He is 100% right in what he's doing.

Contrary to what you've heard, no frills recruitments are not in a "blank room" - you are allowed to have sorority memorabilia and some decoration, and it is often held in the sorority houses. It simply means not spending $10,000.00 to cover the walls of the room with gold fabric or favors such as mini Limoges boxes or nonsense like that.

NPC first recommended all campuses go "no frills" in around 1994. Unfortunately, the resolution had no teeth in it and so here we are 12 years later with campuses that still practice a very frilly rush.

[UGAalum94]

It may not be as bad as you think. The idea, if I have it right, is that "no frills" recruitment allow more time to focus on sisterhood, the ideals of the group, and getting to know the girls. I think it's also supposed to make recruitment less expensive for the chapters. In theory it makes sense, you aren't investing in decorations as much, the time that used to be spent performing the skit can now be spent talking to PNMs, etc.

I'm not sure how it actually works out: I don't think preventing bulk ordering of clothing makes girls spend less on what they wear during rush. I suspect the focus just shifts to something else that you are still allowed to do, and things don't change that much.

Wait and see and try to give the guy a chance. My guess is that someone was really offended by the fraternity shirts, and he was probably directed to get them under control. 33girl is right that it would have probably been weird for him to have too many different policies for the girls than the guys.

Edit: ADPIUCF has had direct experience with the change, and she says it's good. I'm probably too cynical about changes in general.

[adpiucf]

You can still decorate your house and make it look nice. That isn't going away. You're just not tasked with having to turn your formal living room into a desert oasis. Maybe instead you'll have a beautifully painted scene on a banner covering one wall, some balloons and potted plants. Instead of buying red polo shirts in bulk, each sister is tasked to buy her own-- they can be from Ralph Lauren or Target so long as they are clean and neat and fit her properly. There are some new rules to observe, but they're definitely going to benefit you and everyone else.

[adpiucf]

It is honestly going to make your lives so much easier to go from frills to no frills. You will spend a lot less time preparing stupid skits and decorating your chapter house, and more time enjoying your membership. No more staying up until 2 AM to practice a dance that is supposed to represent "sisterhood and diversity." More time bonding as a chapter. More time on summer vacation as opposed to coming back to school early for "work week." Less with the cookie cutter matchy-matchy clothes and more opportunities to dress uniformly yet distinctly within your own budget. An end to t-shirts that bash other GLOs or make the Greek system look like a bunch of morons and a return to classier times and friendly sportsmanship without losing your competitive edge.

By moving to no-frills you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Embrace the change, enjoy the money and time saved. I went through recruitments on both side of frills and no frills. No frills was such a happier experience for everyone involved from sisters to PNMs. And I actually got to eat, sleep and enjoy recruitment. Imagine that.

[ThetaPrincess24]

Originally Posted by adpiucf

It is honestly going to make your lives so much easier to go from frills to no frills. You will spend a lot less time preparing stupid skits and decorating your chapter house, and more time enjoying your membership. No more staying up until 2 AM to practice a dance that is supposed to represent "sisterhood and diversity." More time bonding as a chapter. More time on summer vacation as opposed to coming back to school early for "work week." Less with the cookie cutter matchy-matchy clothes and more opportunities to dress uniformly yet distinctly within your own budget. An end to t-shirts that bash other GLOs or make the Greek system look like a bunch of morons and a return to classier times and friendly sportsmanship without losing your competitive edge.

By moving to no-frills you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Embrace the change, enjoy the money and time saved. I went through recruitments on both side of frills and no frills. No frills was such a happier experience for everyone involved from sisters to PNMs. And I actually got to eat, sleep and enjoy recruitment. Imagine that.

I totally agree!!!

[KSUViolet06]

There are different degrees of 'no frills'. I have never heard of a recruitment that is 100% no frills with NO OUTFITS, SKITS, or SONGS at all.

My school is 'no frills'. As part of this, we do not have skits. We also do not have door songs at all.

We are allowed to have any type of decorations we want, but our decoration budgets have a cap set by Panhellenic.

We also still have House Tours and Preference party at the chapter houses. Our first 2 parties are held in our student center.

The most complicated part of 'no frills' is with clothing. You can have similar clothing, but not identical. For example, you can all wear black tank tops, but they CANNOT be ORDERED/BOUGHT from the SAME STORE because then they would be identical.

We are allowed ONE item of identical clothing for the entire recruitment. Some chapters have lettered shirts ordered as their one bulk item. One chapter bulk ordered XYZ flip flops for Round One.

We are also allowed to sing songs during Preference party.

So as you can see, it is not what you think it is. It is just small little complicated rules, but 'no frills' is not entirely 'blank'.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

The most complicated part of 'no frills' is with clothing. You can have similar clothing, but not identical. For example, you can all wear black tank tops, but they CANNOT be ORDERED/BOUGHT from the SAME STORE because then they would be identical.

I'm not second guessing you, KSUviolet; I'm just thinking through frills vs. no frills.

Wouldn't really be less "frilly" to bulk order everything? It would probably end up costing each sister less than each buying her own things, and if the point to quit spending time and money on unimportant stuff, then having uniforms for each day really cuts down on that: everyone is dressed appropriately; it could be casual and cute, and you can show individual flair with accessories and styling.

If you look through the "what did your group wear for rush" thread, the schools who do the most dress alike or identical dress are also the ones who probably end up with the least expensive outfits.

[tunatartare]

Originally Posted by Alphagamuga

If you look through the "what did your group wear for rush" thread, the schools who do the most dress alike or identical dress are also the ones who probably end up with the least expensive outfits.

I have to disagree here. For sororities where every single girl has the same exact outfit, the sorority usually pays for all or part of the outfit, which costs the sorority more money. It's a lot more money to say "we're ordering everyone Seven For All Mankind jeans and a black Lacoste long sleeve polo," than it is to say "everyone wear nice jeans and a black polo for round 1."