What...in the heck happened this year???

This was the largest number going through rush ever, and it was the second or third largest in numbers in the SEC. All of the houses had to cut massively. I think the cut numbers were around 1,700, which is brutal. This was especially hard for top houses like KD, ADII, AOII, Phi Mu, DDD, etc.

The great news is that all the houses are UT are strong with sweet, amazing girls. Even so, it can be a painful process, and it can be a great process. Just hoping each girl found their home.

is set using a formula based on the # of PNMs (attending preference, I believe). It doesn't matter how many girls go through recruitment- there is a technically a spot for every PNM, but that doesn't guarantee that the PNM will like the spot/s that end up as her option. It sounds like that's what happened if a bunch of PNMs were dropped from "Most" of the houses- they still had options but didn't like the houses they had left.

By design, the current RFM system of recruitment makes top houses cut huge numbers of girls right away, and funnels those girls to other houses. It's based on chapter size and return rates from the previous years. You can see this play out through recruitment week as "Top" houses have fewer/smaller parties, because they aren't allowed to invite as many PNMs back each round. It's a national Panhellenic system that began about 15 years ago and it has actually benefitted the system overall and has really helped a lot of the chapters at UT.

The "trust the process" drilled into these girls is NOT the right anthem. It should be "it's not you, it's the numbers". Sororities were never founded in numbers, it was about sisterhood, leadership and empowering women. To say I'm disappointed in the way my own chapter recruited is an understatement. I'm appalled. Telling girls they want to drop and literally disengaging with recruits. They didn't even know where their own sorority was founded! Shame on them! And for actives reading this, don't think your chapter isn't excluded from bad recruitment just because you made a number. I've heard first hand about nearly all. And the sad thing is that the girls truly looking for sisterhood, and not just a "label" will be the girls that aren't coming back when your new recruit decides she wants to drop in a year.

Bid day yesterday. 😩 I have to say. Shocked at many we received. You can already tell who is in it for the wrong reasons.

i mean the pledge classes this year were double the size they were 4 years ago. unfortunately when too many girls rush for the small amount of chapters tennessee has, girls are going to get cut.

Huge numbers of PNMs and not enough houses. We need a new colony (heck, 2-3 wouldn’t hurt) ASAP. We have numbers comparable to the biggest Greek system schools but quite a few less houses. Bama has 17!

Thank you to the person who explained the RFM system. Before anyone complains about the “system” please do your homework and understand what it is and why it’s there, how it works. Is it perfect? No, but understand that everything is based on percentages, so number of PNMs going through the recruitment is not the issue.

As for the suggestion to “cap” recruitment numbers. I’m shocked that someone would come up with that idea. How would that work? Who would determine who can and cannot go through recruitment. I would suggest going to the National Panhellenic website and do some reading. This idea is against everything Panhellenic stands for.

To the question about whether Tennessee needs more sororities, that would definitely bring down quota. But with they way Sorority Village is set up, many sororities will pass because not being in the village would be a huge disadvantage to their chapter. There is something to the idea of adding 2-3 more groups, but they would need some kind of housing that would (at the very least) put these 2-3 organizations on a level playing field with each other. And you’re talking major $$ to make all of that happen.

Finally, to the person who is blaming quota: quota is simply a number set by dividing the number of girls going through (I think they use the number going through sisterhood) divided by the number of chapters. Every single university in the US and Canada with more than 2 Panhellenic groups on campus sets their quota the exact same way.

Growth is a good thing, particularly when there are many universities who are struggling to attract members to their Greek systems. Growth needs to be managed, and it can sometimes be uncomfortable, but it’s still a good problem to have.

I’m sorry that your friends daughters did not have the experience going through recruitment that they’d hoped for. But saying horrible things about actives or their new member classes is not helpful. Alums, go to UPC, start a dialogue. Dialogue with your actives, with the advisory boards of your chapters. Use this situation to improve the process for everyone, without suggesting capping or changing how quota is set.

To the alum on here making claims that the numbers are too big for girls to have a good rush experience… you have to understand that the ratios are staying the same. Around 900 girls rushed in 2012/2013 and pledge classes consisted of about 50 girls. We might have had over 2,000 go through this year but pledge classes were 140-150 girls. You can easily find the UTK Panhellenic recruitment statistics online for the past few years and if you do the math, the percentage of girls receiving a bid has actually gone up. I’m so sorry that you know girls that didn’t have a good experience or got cut from houses they loved. Unfortunately, that is not a new concept that has anything to do with the current numbers.

We can all do math. We all understand percentages. Yes, RFM system .. everyone knows about that. No secret there. In a system like this with huge cuts day one, unless you have someone inside the house that knows and wants you, then you basically have zero chances in several houses. Looks like many houses missed a lot of amazing girls simply because they did not get to know them. When the pledge class is 50 then obviously girls have a better chance getting in a house that's their best fit because the houses can (or will) get to know a lot about the girl. With 2100 girls, a wonderfully prepared pnm with all the qualities most houses look for will simply be missed and sadly not land in their best fit house. I agree ... "TRUST THE PROCESS" no longer truly works with numbers this large. No way to change it, but the process will fail many highly qualified and desirable pnm's. Having an amazing resume, rec letters and being well prepared is simply not enough! Good thing is that bid day showed the houses are leveling out. Lots of houses are reaping the benefit of some houses simply not doing their pre recruitment homework!

Its kind of crazy how much growth sorority rush had this year - the school also had an enrollment of 800 more students than last year. It was really stressful and a lot of qualified girls probably got overlooked because of the numbers. The girls who made it through preference with two houses should have all gotten bids.