2 - Year College Enrollees -- Should They Be Allowed to Join NPC Chapters?

[exlurker]

A member of a sorority at Wisconsin-Madison urges the university’s Panhellenic council to allow women enrolled at a local technical college to rush (i.e., go through recruitment), get bids, and become members of NPC sororities.

http://host.madison.com/daily-cardin...53e243a80.html

I think the writer doesn’t comprehend the policies of the NPC or its 26 individual organizations. Panhellenic at Madison simply can’t on its own change the very basic rules of eligibility for undergrad membership.
How about Unanimous Agreement III, 2. B
“2. To be eligible to participate in Panhellenic recruitment and pledge an NPC sorority, a woman shall:
A. Not be simultaneously enrolled in high school and attending college.
B. Be regularly matriculated according to the definition of matriculation established by that institution.”

I think that most students at the local technical college are not “regularly matriculated” at Wisonsin-Madison.

That said, what about the general idea of opening recruitment to women enrolled in nearby two-year institutions? If it somehow did become allowable, would any GCers be in favor? Against? Care to discuss?

[33girl]

They shouldn't be allowing the guys to do it because this is the can of worms it opens. If this was a school that EXCLUSIVELY functions as a conduit to UW it would be feasible, but considering these students can go to another 4 year institution with no penalty, this is a big EFF NO.

[TSteven]

Originally Posted by 33girl

They shouldn't be allowing the guys to do it because this is the can of worms it opens.

The NIC already allows this, so that can of worms is alreay open.

For what it is worth, NIC fraternities are also allowed to have chapters at two-year institutions as well as have city-wide chapters.

[AOII Angel]

It depends if those technical schools are associated with the University. Other campuses like A&M have made the move to allow students at the associated Jr College with provisional admission go through recruitment. If the University changes their definition of "regularly matriculated" the NPC will allow it.

[aephi alum]

No.

If people at 2-year college A routinely get their associate's degrees and then enroll in 4-year college B as juniors, they can rush at college B as juniors. But they could be invited to "meet the sisters" events at college B during their second year at college A - why not?

But you have to be fully matriculated at a 4-year college to join an NPC chapter there.

Local GLOs, of course, can make their own rules. And I won't lane-swerve and speak for NIC, NPHC, NALFO, etc.

[Titchou]

I'm on the "no" side....for many reasons but mainly because NPC says so and my GLO is a founding member of NPC.

[clemsongirl]

It sounds like this school serves mostly as a feeder school into UW-Madison, given what one of the girls they quoted said...I agree that the policy should be consistent across both councils, either allow MATC students or don't.

I would be in favor of allowing chapters the option to take these women if they wanted to, but not penalizing them for deciding against it. I will add a caveat by saying that my sorority isn't represented at this school so it's less of an issue for me than others.

[sugar and spice]

Originally Posted by 33girl

They shouldn't be allowing the guys to do it because this is the can of worms it opens. If this was a school that EXCLUSIVELY functions as a conduit to UW it would be feasible, but considering these students can go to another 4 year institution with no penalty, this is a big EFF NO.

The technical college guarantees admission to the UW if you maintain a minimum GPA (I think it's a 3.0). Technically students could go elsewhere after finishing up the two-year program, but very few of them do, assuming they manage to get into the UW. Almost none of them are looking to go out of state, and the UW is the best school in the state (one that's much harder to get into through other channels), so it would be rare for them to choose to go to another school unless they're looking at a niche program. So hypothetically--if the NPC didn't have a rule against it--I can understand allowing, say, second-year MATC students who've maintained a strong GPA (a minimum in the 3.2-3.4 range) to rush at the UW. They'll likely end up at the UW the next year. But first year students? Absolutely not. I've attended both schools, and the bottom line is that many, many students who attend MATC aren't ready to be in college and either fail out or drop out in their first semester or two. There are other reasons why students fresh out of high school attend MATC--like money--but the bulk of them are there because their study skills/academic commitment aren't up to the requirements of a 4-year college. Until they can prove otherwise, rushing is bad idea.

Edited to add: There is a specific program that you have to join in order to get into that UW pipeline, so if the UW sororities only wanted people to join who would later become UW students, they could allow rushees only from that program. Again, hypothetically.

Originally Posted by aephi alum

No.

If people at 2-year college A routinely get their associate's degrees and then enroll in 4-year college B as juniors, they can rush at college B as juniors. But they could be invited to "meet the sisters" events at college B during their second year at college A - why not?

It's much more difficult to get a bid at the UW as a junior than it is as a sophomore or freshman, or at least was when I was there--do they have a junior quota now? It wasn't as impossible as at some Southern schools, of course. But harder. So I can understand the frustration. And I can understand the desire to have a more active social life and part of the "college experience" that you feel like you're missing out on when attending a tech school. It's unfortunate that the two-year college sororities have mostly died out.

That said, this isn't a common practice on the fraternities' side--I never heard of a fraternity doing it while I was in school, and I can't imagine that more than a few MATC students join UW fraternities in any given year. And even if the sororities did allow it, I can't see it being a widely exercised option. MATC's campus and the UW's aren't particularly geographically close together, and the UW Greek system is extremely campus-centric. For example, the entire campus is lacking in parking (cars are forbidden to anybody living in campus housing), but Greek row specifically has next to none, which makes it a big pain in the butt if you have to come down all the time for sorority stuff in a car. My sorority, at least, required tons of study hours either at the house or the library--it was hard enough for me to make those when I lived on campus; I can't imagine trying to do it if I didn't. (And that's not even counting chapter meetings and volunteer stuff and rush events, and oh my god, so much stuff.) Some years MATC starts their semester a week earlier than the UW, which would make it tough to come to Work Week activities. Just little things like that would be very difficult to work around, and would start to grate on you after a while. I imagine that most MATC students wouldn't be able to handle the time commitment and there would be a high drop-out rate.

[amanda6035]

Lawd, this sounds familiar.

For the record, SPSU never got to recruit Floyd/GA Highlands students. NEVER.

[carnation]

Oh man, pledging Floyd/Highlands students--not a good idea. Sororities would want women with proven academic records and many, many people who go to Highlands need to learn how to study first. Enough said.

[amanda6035]

Originally Posted by carnation

Oh man, pledging Floyd/Highlands students--not a good idea. Sororities would want women with proven academic records and many, many people who go to Highlands need to learn how to study first. Enough said.

HAHAHA. Carnation - I started that thread literally 10 years ago (good grief....). I was a baby. I didn't know a darn thing about anything. But....the point of me linking back to it was to re-iterate: 2 year school students: ain't happenin'.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by aephi alum

If people at 2-year college A routinely get their associate's degrees and then enroll in 4-year college B as juniors, they can rush at college B as juniors. But they could be invited to "meet the sisters" events at college B during their second year at college A - why not?

When do the women involved get their acceptances? I would have no problem calling them eligible once they have an acceptance in hand. If this means they have an acceptance by January, can pledge in the spring semester, and then move into the house that fall, that's a good situation for the women, but also a good situation for any chapter that is trying to maintain numbers and fill their house.

Most chapters probably wouldn't be interested, and it would probably be a small number of women, but if XYZ is the smallest chapter, and reaching into this new pool helps them grab some great women, fill their house, and come back in the fall with bigger numbers for recruitment, I don't see what the problem is.

[AZTheta]

Don't think this is a good idea for NPC member sororities. I read the opinion piece and was disappointed that the writer had not done any research on NPC policies, as exlurker pointed out.

This is too messy, too many variables, too many qualifications to make it feasible (i.e it'll work if blah blah blah happens/is required/etc). So a spring admit pledges, and is initiated - and then transfers. Oh yeah. You can go on and on with the permutations. Have fun.

And as for the smallest chapter grabbing "some great women" - those great women likely don't have their sights set on XYZ. We all know this. No sense pretending otherwise in an attempt to justify this. That's a big stretch, and if you don't see the problem(s), there isn't anything else to be said.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by AZTheta

And as for the smallest chapter grabbing "some great women" - those great women likely don't have their sights set on XYZ. We all know this. No sense pretending otherwise in an attempt to justify this. That's a big stretch, and if you don't see the problem(s), there isn't anything else to be said.

I don't know much about UW, but I was under the impression that it isn't a school where most women know a ton about "tiers" prior to recruitment. I also have no idea how successful women are when rushing as juniors.

But in any case, my point was not that a weaker recruiting chapter should trick a woman into joining before she has seen all of her options, it was that a woman could pledge in time to live in the house her junior year, when that otherwise wouldn't be an option.

[AZTheta]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

I don't know much about UW, but I was under the impression that it isn't a school where most women know a ton about "tiers" prior to recruitment. I also have no idea how successful women are when rushing as juniors.

But in any case, my point was not that a weaker recruiting chapter should trick a woman into joining before she has seen all of her options, it was that a woman could pledge in time to live in the house her junior year, when that otherwise wouldn't be an option.

I see. I was not interpreting "fill the house" in the physical sense. Appreciate your clarification, as will others, I'm sure.

As for "tiers", in this day and age of social media, it's endemic that people discuss reputations. Hell, it was endemic when I went through, and all we had were tom-toms and smoke signals and cans connected by strings and carrier pigeons (you get my drift).