pledge class size fall 2016

None of the houses get to choose how many people are in their new pc. Phc gives them the numbers based on retention rates and how many go through FFR. So houses with high retention rates (think "top" houses) get less girls because fewer tend to drop them, and houses with lower retention rates ("bottom" houses) get more girls because more tend to drop them. So kkg/piphi/dg/aphi all got on average 58 girls which were the smallest pc anyone could have. The numbers are set by phc and who gets into which house depends on how each house ranked girls, and the order in which the girls preffed houses.

I'm disturbed by all the comments about people dropping or going all the way to pref and quitting. I also witnessed many tears this year on the faces of pnms and I think this is an awful way to start out at cal! We saw so many good pnms this year that we couldnt include and it makes me sad that many of them choose to drop out rather than become part of the community. There are great people in all the houses and I believe that all this banter about rankings is hurting our community in a big way. As far as I'm concerned all the houses should have had pledge classes over 50 and I'm very concerned as to why this didn't happen. The absence of a statement from panhel about the dropping and cutting and pledge class size honestly reflects poorly on all of us! Shame on us all.....

It seems to me that no one wants to believe that phc gives out the numbers to the houses based on retention rate but if you really think about it, it makes sense. Phc knows the numbers and they know the percentage of girls who drop in every house. If every house was given the same class size, the houses where a lot of girls drop would end up with a lot less by the end of the year, while the house that don't have many drop would have pretty much the same amount from bid day. I saw all the bid lists for kkg/piphi/dg/aphi, and they all had roughly 58 girls (give or take a few), I'm sure if you tried enough you could get your hands on them. All class sizes were larger than normal for every chapter.

Thanks panhel for some info. Maybe the question asked originally strictly about class size was incorrect. I do think the original question was trying to get at the issue of class size disparity and why so many great ladies dropped this year. I do think transparency is a huge issue and when there is no transparency people distrust the system. Clearly people don't trust the system and that is not good for any house. I think panhel should consider publishing more stats on the website so that transparency is improved. I also think we all need to do some soul searching about our system and what we can do to be more inclusive and not lose so many great pnms. Perhaps a totally open spring season is an answer to bringing back some of the people lost this fall. I think to just say the fall season is over and done without looking at the bigger picture over the long run is a huge missed opportunity and poor panhel leadership in my opinion. Maybe we need to add a house or two or maybe existing houses need to soul search on why retention is poor. Something is wrong with the process and system and I don't think we have honestly discussed it or prioritized even talking about it. Things don't fix themselves and to lose the people we lost this fall should never have happened. We need some leadership on this issue as right now I see none unfortunately.

For what it's worth I also think the AOPi situation needs to be discussed as it clearly had an adverse impact on fall recruitment. What has happened to the house is heartbreaking and unfortunate but unless anyone sees the situation being resolved any time soon then I think we need to put the episode behind us all and find another house or two to colonize. I also fault panhel for not dealing with this situation in a public way online. Random Twitter and Facebook posts aren't a formal public statement. We need some definitive leadership here I think. The situation with the House is admittedly complex but if it hasn't been resolved in 11 years then how can we expect anything to happen in the near term. While I am sure the members love their sisterhood perhaps they should investigate mass deactivation and see if legally there is some way to affiliate with another national. Sounds extreme but the circumstances are extreme and appear unresolvable between the parties. I am sure if the legalities could be addressed that another national would be glad to take on the house. I think it's delusional to try to recruit given the circumstances and it's hurting the system to continue as is. Tough situations require leadership and frankly it's been totally absent.

Never come here but read these comments and I have to shout out a big 'thank you' for the people that have courage to step out and say what they think. I just went through fall recruitment and I have to say that I honestly didn't have confidence that the system would work after I saw so many super pnms dropped from the so called 'top houses'. Some people I met stayed with the process and were happy but many other dropped out. I had a rough time the first two rounds but it did work out in the end. Not sure it should be this hard and people start out college with such a demoralizing experience. I feel badly for the people I met that dropped out. I am keeping an open mind about all this but I have to say the process did not inspire my confidence!

Totally agree that system needs to be fixed!

I'm on a tear tonight on the topic of lack of panhel leadership and fall recruitment. There was just so much hurt this past fall but what is disturbing is how many good people we lost. The bet about who ends up in which house is pathetic - its pathetic that you were correct. I didn't make a bet but I kept track of people I expected to see back at each event and what happened is that there seemed to be massive cuts early. So many sharp ladies never returned and I didn't know why. I can only guess we had legacy issues or friend issues and that the class was determined before recruitment even started. Hate to say it but that is what it felt like this year. Wish we had the stats to prove my feeling wrong but as mentioned about Panhel is asleep at the switch and chapter leaders are only a short step behind Panhel. In my house I'm not even sure why we bothered to have more than one event as it was done after the first event!

I wrote a letter today to the dean of students to request an investigation into the handling of fall recruitment. I'm not sure this will have any impact but somebody outside the system needs to review the situation. I will post the letter on Reddit if anything of substance is disclosed. My next letter is to the president of national panhel to explain some of the rumors along with disclosing some of the stories I have heard first hand. Someone somewhere needs to look at cal now. I did an internship at a major city daily this summer and I will reach out to them next as some of these real life stories should be heard and the situation with diversity and discrimination brought to light.

So this happened to the pledge class at Pi Phi and DG this year as well. This happened because on the days of recruitment, fewer people dropped us than other houses. So that gave us a chance to limit the amount of bids we gave out without much worry about being left with no new members. This is something I learned during recruitment, it happens to a few houses every year