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When I was eighteen years old,
I received a bid from a top tier

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sorority at the University of Maryland.
Accepting my coronation into one of Greek life's

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royal families would soon alter the trajectory
of my college experience entirely. Three years

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after a dramatic exit from my sorority, I released a podcast series about my

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experience to break the culture of silence
that is intentionally cultivated in these environments.

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After releasing season one, I received
an outpour of messages from individuals ready to

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tell their own Greek life horror stories
on the record. This isn't just my

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story anymore. Welcome to Snap.
Season two. Snapped. The entire process

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of what goes on behind the scenes
at sorority recruitment was quite a puzzle for

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me to figure out. I only
lasted seven months in my sorority, and

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so I did not witness the other
side of sorority rush. However, each

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interview that I held, each document
that I discovered, was a different piece

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to the recruitment puzzle. In this
episode, we will complete the puzzle so

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that we can see the full picture
of how sorority chapters end up with their

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final pledge. Class. Welcome to
Part three of the Snapped Recruitment special.

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If you haven't listened to the first
two parts yet, go listen so that

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you can fully understand Sorority World's biggest
event of the year. I'm your host,

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Lucy Taylor. This is Snapped.
As a PNM, also known as

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a potential new member, you don't
know shit about how you're being ranked or

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judged on the other side of recruitment, so I could imagine that doing recruitment

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for the first time as a sister
and seeing it all unfold on the other

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side would be a fascinating experience.
I was excited to go through recruitment on

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the other side. It was like
the veil was being lifted for me.

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The last time I'd experienced this,
I was a freshman. I had no

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idea what they were doing, how
I was being judged. I had the

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chance to interview Nicole, who went
to a private university in California, and

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I was super intrigued as she described
to me what her first recruitment as an

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initiated sister was like. Nicole had
just gotten back from studying abroad, so

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she hadn't seen her sorority sisters in
a while. When I went abroad,

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my eating disorder got a lot worse. I got depressed. I ended up

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gaining a lot of weight as a
result, and when I came back my

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junior year, I was about twenty
pounds heavier than when I came there at

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first. So anyway, I come
back and I was not this polished,

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perfect sorority girl that I was when
I was a freshman. And what ended

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up happening was I would come in, I would get all dressed up and

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bretty in the dress code. I
would do full makeup, hare go through

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the list. They would say,
Okay, these are the girls that are

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assigned to this round, and this
is where you're standing. And at the

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end, I come up to the
advisor excuse me. I didn't hear my

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name on the list. She said, Oh, we don't need you for

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this round. I was like what. I was so confused. And this

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didn't just happen once. Every night
that we had these recruitment events, they

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would like, not include me in
the list. When midnight came around and

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we met the new girls, I'm
looking around the room like I don't even

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know these people because I haven't been
a part of the process. It was

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really hurtful for me. Went up
to the girls who were in my chapter,

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who were leading recruitment. I asked
them, why is this happening?

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Why are you not you know,
including me, like why are you sending

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me home every night? And they
would never give me a straight answer.

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They would be like, oh,
we're gooddy, we can't talk to you

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right now. And even to this
day, I'll have not got an exact

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answer about why this happened. It
was really bugging me actually leading up to

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this interview, and I messaged the
girl who was the president at the time.

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I sent her a DM on Instagram. I was like, hey,

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like, this was obviously a long
time ago, but I was not allowed

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to participate in recruitment and it's still
bugging me and I just wonder why.

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And she was like, oh,
I wasn't directly involved in the recruitment.

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That wasn't my role. And I'm
like, Okay, that's probably BS,

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because I definitely saw you up there
with the VP of recruitment every night,

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Nicole's alumni advisor and the recruitment team
wouldn't allow Nicole to participate in recruitment events.

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I think it's important to point out
that this was the same advisor from

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the last episode that instructed the members
to rank the pnms using an ice cream

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metaphor. She said, someone who's
at ten is a perfect ice cream cone

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who had rained sprinkles and it looks
beautiful. Someone who's a five is like,

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this is a nice dish of ice
cream. I would eat it,

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It's okay. And someone who's a
one is like an ice cream cone it's

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been dropped on the ground. And
this was the same advisor that said,

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you want this chapter to be one
that you could not have gotten into.

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Nicole's sbrity advisor told the members that
you want the girls coming in to be

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of a higher caliber. Nicole shared
that there was a clear initiative to turn

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the chapter from a middle tier chapter
into a top tier chapter. I think

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the advisor might have even gotten some
pressure from Nationals to reform our chapter and

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make it top tier. And the
fact that this is all influenced by a

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puppet for this larger organization with its
own agendas and its own financial motives is

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just very very strange when you look
at it from a business standpoint. The

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goal of becoming a top tier chapter
makes sense if you have that reputation as

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top tier. The more people want
to join the sorority, the more money

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you're making. So in terms of
business, the alumni advisor who's being instructed

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by nationals is just doing their job. Essentially, the chapter was trying to

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attain high valued recruits in order to
become a top tier. So in the

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same way that the sororities are identifying
the pnms that are nonentities and might weaken

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the image of the organization, they're
also identifying the PMMs that they really want

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to get in their chapter, the
high valued recruits who might bring a higher

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status to the organization or even bring
more power by gaining a high valued to

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recruit who may come from a powerful
family Let's say their dad is in Congress

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or some shit, the chapter then
gains more power and control when bidding someone

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offering them membership into these elite organizations. Greek life culture forces you to ask,

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if we offer this person a bid, what will they give us?

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Besides their money, of course,
what perks or connects might this person offer.

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I discussed this concept of a high
valued recruit with a VP of recruitment

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that I interviewed. Would there ever
be like high valued recruits. Yeah,

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well, I would get a lot
of texts from sisters up being like,

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oh I saw this girl's instagram and
I know she's going through recruitment, like

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she'd be great, and then like
make all their friends vote tends on them.

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Usually they were really rich, they're
conventionally pretty, they're known for partying,

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or they go to like the best
clubs. We had a recruit who

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had a really famous dad the VP
of recruitment before me, who I was

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shadowing for me, Oh, you
have to put her with like our best

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group. You have to put her
with like our prettiest sisters. So she

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asked first that and everyone was informed
what party she would be in and like

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who she'd be talking to, and
was basically told, like, you have

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to put on a show for this
one girl. And of course the alumni

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organization is involved when identifying these potential
assets for the chapter. The most common

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example of this is a recommendation letter, but there are more extreme cases of

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this recommendation system. In my interview
with a traveling leadership consultant who is an

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alumni volunteering for nationals, she explained
to me the information that alumni we're bringing

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in This was in nineteen ninety six. So we would start early and we

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would go to these rushes. I'll
never forget. I was walking around and

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they had a bit. You know, it's a big room of food,

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you know, because the women are
in there and they're rushing and talking and

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you have food and drink something.
And the alumni associations would send cupcake with

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a girl who was rushing with her
picture because they wanted them not to forget

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with this girl looked like. So
a lot of the Southern alumni associations would

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know what girl was going to what
school, and they would get together and

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they would write you recommendations that that
just wasn't enough for them, so they

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would then send things like, oh, we've got this basket fruit, and

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then you know, attached to it
would be the girl's picture and like some

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highlights. To be clear about what
just happened, the alumni organization attached a

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photo of the high valued recruit to
the fruit basket so that members would be

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able to look out for them during
recruitment. In one of my other interviews,

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I learned of another way that the
chapter can be reminded about who is

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a high valued recruit. I mean, even when I went through Rushed,

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the hot rushies were sort of plastered
up on the bathroom wall, so you

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need to look for those people.
In particular, the literal pictures of the

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high valued recruits were hung up on
the sorority bathroom wall, so the sisters

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new to look out for them.
So for a high valu you'd recruit.

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Recruitment is like a walk in the
park because you're being schmoozed to the eighth

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power. I think I killed Rush
same same and like just having the New

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York City background, Yeah, that
was both grew up in New York City.

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It's such a stunt. Yeah,
I feel like it's like, oh

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my god, like the New York
City girl, Like there weren't that many.

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Damn. If only they knew that
I would turn out to be a

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liability. So taking it back to
Nicole's chapter, who was blatantly trying to

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rise up in the ranks and therefore
trying to gain those high valued recruits.

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I could assume why Nicole wasn't used
in the same way that Nicole could assume,

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but we both don't know because there's
no evidence. No one's giving an

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answer. In Nicole's senior year,
she lost the weight and was able to

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fully participate in recruitment, but to
this day, she has not received confirmation

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about why she was not able to
recruit in her junior year. I was

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under the impression that all members of
a chapter did the recruiting during Rush.

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This was the first time I'd even
heard of this idea, that all members

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aren't being used during recruitment. That
was until someone else that I interviewed brought

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up the same concept and my ears
perked up. I was like an alternate,

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And so if you were an alternate, you weren't in it at all.

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You had to stay the entire time, even if you had a test,

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even if your fucking grandma died,
Like you had to stay the entire

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time of Rush. Do you know
why you weren't used? No, I

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think they didn't like me that much
because I was always speaking my opinions and

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I didn't give a fuck what they
said, So like I don't and I

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also just I didn't care that hunch. I was just like they could tell

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I didn't really give a fuck,
And so I think that they were just

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like they wanted the girls who were
like live brings die sorority. This interview

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was with Harper, an alumni from
James Madison University. When Harper wasn't being

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used to recruit, she was put
to work as a chanting sister at the

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door. Harper shared with me how
this would go down. Before a round

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of recruitment, they would pick a
girl that they thought like would like you

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based on god knows what. And
so if you were like picked with a

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girl, they would like, scream
your name, and you're like, okay,

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like Jessica, you're with Sarah,
So get a line third and so

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then one by one, sure enough, everybody who wasn't called to go get

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a girl. We lined the walls
and we were clapping and banging and screaming

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the chance. So this concept of
not using all members to recruit was clearly

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not just Nicole's chapter. Like most
things in sorority world, it's not just

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a one chapter thing. It became
clear to me that there was some type

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of mechanism or process that strategically decided
which members were worthy of being the face

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of the chapter and recruiting, and
which members weren't. This concept came up

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again with someone who were calling Megan. You heard from her in the first

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part of the Recruitment Special, and
she is using a pseudonym for her own

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safety. Megan was also not used
as a recruiter and instead was put to

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work on the reference committee. I
wasn't actually a part of the interviewing process.

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I was on the reference committee where
I would help organize people and like

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score them and put the scores onto
the computer to see like which girl was

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going to be chosen. So so
you didn't do any of recruiting, no,

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but I saw to be that.
So I didn't actually need to be

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a part of the workshop. But
I was like required to go anyway.

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To be clear, she had to
attend the Zoom workshop week that we discussed

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in part one of the Recruitment Special, where they learned how to recruit from

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August twenty one to September thirteenth.
It was like every day training. On

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August twenty third, it was eleven
am to seven pm a workshop. Except

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if we like had messed up the
night before, she would be like,

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all right, I'm adding three hours
she had to go to this ship and

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wasn't even doing the recruiting. Then
why do you have to get all the

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outfit? Did you have to gets
outfits? Yes? Why that's such a

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good question. I would love him, though. They put me on reference

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so that I wouldn't be talking to
any of the potential new members, like

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directly, because I wasn't like polished
enough. I wasn't like the typical sorority

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girl. They kind of wanted to
keep me hidden from the girls that were

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trying to join upon you, so
that I wouldn't, like, you know,

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mess up there. Their look.
Megan's inclination about why she wasn't used

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made perfect sense, given the fact
that recruitment is appearance based and everybody knows

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it. I spoke with someone else
who did the nitty gritty work of transferring

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scores from the slips onto Excel spreadsheets. She explained that in her chat,

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this was a volunteer position, but
you were encouraged to volunteer if you didn't

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think you would be used during a
recruitment. If you aren't used, you

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just kind of sit in a room
that isn't being used, like one of

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the girl's bedrooms, all day,
all dressed up and like hair done,

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and that sucks. So they're like, if you think that you're one of

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the people who won't be used,
just volunteer and do this because the other

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ways kind of torture. How do
you know if you're a person who might

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not be used, Like what's the
consensus around that? Oh? Definitely,

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if you feel like you're not like
super popular, if you're not the kind

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of person that they put on the
tumbler page or like on the Instagram,

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like you're not like the face they're
putting forward, you're probably not going to

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be used. And people kind of
knew where they stood. There were a

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couple people who didn't, and they
ended up just like sitting in a room

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all day, like not being allowed
to talk to people, rushing. So

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if you find out though, why
are you still there dressed up? Because

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they just have you convinced that if
a bunch of people get sick, like

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what if like six girls get food
poisoning and like we need you, like

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we need you to be dressed and
ready to go because we might use you.

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They had to buy the outfits and
get dressed up every day. And

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would they be annoyed. Yeah,
they would be annoyed and sad, and

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it was a hit to their self
esteem because they obviously felt like, Okay,

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you think I'm either not very attractive, my personality sucks, or like

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there's a reason why you're hiding me
and don't want me to talk to people

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who will be in our sorority,
who I'm supposed to be friends with and

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get along with once they join.
Nicole, Harper, Megan and the other

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00:16:38,039 --> 00:16:42,919
interviewee who you just heard from all
go to different schools. I could confidently

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say now that sororities strategically select their
recruiters, and while sisters could assume that

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they weren't used because they weren't polished
enough or weren't featured on the sororities Instagram,

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no sister could really be sure about
the exact reasoning behind this choice because

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they weren't the ones making the choice. We already learned in the second part

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of the special that the real decision
making in recruitment is limited to the recruitment

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team, who is being instructed by
the alumni advisors. But the recruitment puzzle

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00:17:17,640 --> 00:17:22,880
started to have a much clearer picture
after a snapped listener sent in the Alpha

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Fee Recruitment Expose Thanks for the tip. The expose was released in twenty eighteen

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00:17:30,720 --> 00:17:33,160
by a form of recruitment chair at
the University of Michigan, note that the

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information I'm about to read has been
condensed for the podcast, but all wording

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00:17:37,319 --> 00:17:41,920
remains the same. You can find
the link to the full expose in the

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00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:45,599
show notes for today's episode. The
author refers to Alpha Fie as Beta Delta.

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The part of the expose that I'm
about to read is when the author

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becomes the recruitment chair and can finally
hear the insider secrets that only those on

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the recruitment team are allowed to know. She states quote, the smiling former

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00:18:00,839 --> 00:18:04,240
recruitment chairs finally let the four of
us hear the whispers. They told us

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of the national policies that we would
need to follow in order to be the

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most desirable chapter on campus. They
told us that the superficial scoring, the

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messed up way in which we determined
the value of potential sisters, didn't end

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upon membership. It just changed.
They told us that we would need to

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rank the current sisters of Beta Delta
on a scale of one to ten in

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order to determine their recruiting strength.
Seventy percent of that score would be their

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external score. They were all sisters, and their external prescores had once been

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high enough to grant the membership their
seven and above external scores, however,

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had been relative to one thousand,
two hundred PMMs. Now we would need

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to score them relative to each other, and they couldn't all be scored highly.

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They couldn't all be equally worthy of
meeting our most desirable recruits. So

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we looked at our friends and sisters
and belittled their worth into only numbers.

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As p and ms eagerly lined up
alphabetically outside the beta delta door, the

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sisters then line up on the other
side, prepared to pick up the right

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girl who has been preassigned to them. The Beta delta tends would meet the

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00:19:19,079 --> 00:19:25,160
p ANDM tens, the Beta delta
threes would meet the PNM threes. We

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00:19:25,279 --> 00:19:29,319
told the sisters that they couldn't mess
up the lines because scoring would become too

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00:19:29,359 --> 00:19:33,279
difficult between rounds, But the sisters
actually couldn't mess up the lines because a

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PMM with an external score of eight
couldn't be recruited by a beta delta with

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a score of three. The PMM
threes were gone before they walked inside,

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and the Beta delta threes were used
to entertain them for those twenty five minutes

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00:19:48,720 --> 00:19:52,759
before we could right click on their
cell in the external prescoring document and press

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delete end quote not this, but
of horse this. I'm sure that this

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ranking process can vary a bit from
chapter to chapter, in the same way

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that the way to rank a PNM
may have a unique twist depending on their

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chapter. But just like the ranking
system that's used to rank pnms, this

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00:20:15,519 --> 00:20:21,640
one too has a clear motive,
bringing the conventionally attractive girls to the forefront

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and weed out the unpolished sisters.
It seems like the sisters that are ranked

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poorly are either waiting around to be
used, are being used to entertain p

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and ms who are marked as nonentities, or are performing other duties such as

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filing slips and chanting. A VP
of recruitment at George Washington University told me

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that in her chapter, the lower
ranking members would fill the role of entertaining

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the lower ranked PMMs. They would
just be doing what we would call floating,

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which is basically standing in the middle
of the room and waiting for someone

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to signal that they weren't having a
good time talking to someone rushing like we

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would have all of these signals for
like the recruiting room if we were in

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person, like if you put your
hand like cross behind your back. It

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would mean like, I need someone
to come help me with this conversation because

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I really don't like this person.
And so then a lower ranking girl takes

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over because she's not wanted anyway.
Yeah, what was the signal? On

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zoom? On zoom? Usually someone
would just text the VP of recruitment and

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she would send someone in. That's
like one of the things that they don't

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tell you until I was already initiated. It makes sense why she wasn't allowed

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to know this info until after she
was initiated, because the deeper into the

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group you go, the more information
you know. Remember the different layers that

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we were talking about in the last
episode. You know how the exact board

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is in a deeper layer than the
general members, and the alumni advisors are

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in a deeper layer than the exact
board and tear Love and Brainwashing by Alexandra

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00:22:03,240 --> 00:22:07,839
Stein, where I learned about the
structure of these layers and cultic groups.

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I also learned that quote in support
of the structure, the group employs secrecy

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00:22:15,039 --> 00:22:19,480
and deception to maintain the separation between
layers. It takes time to move a

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00:22:19,519 --> 00:22:25,839
person sufficiently far into the system until
they become isolated and detached enough from rational

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thought before the group can afford to
unveil the secret ideas. End quote.

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Listen to what Alex, one of
the vps of recruitment that I interviewed,

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said about the use of secrecy in
her chapter. We would have conversations with

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our new member classes after they had
joined the chapter, before they were initiated,

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to talk about recruitment with them,
like what did you like this year?

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What didn't you like? Getting opinions
from people who just went through it

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so that we could, like,
you know, make it better for next

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year. And there were multiple times
I would start saying something and I'd get

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cut off because I was about to
spill too much. Don't tell them anything.

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They're not initiated. They could still
drop, you know, we want

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00:22:56,559 --> 00:23:00,920
to keep them until initiation. If
you're not allowed to tell anybody about what

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00:23:00,960 --> 00:23:03,400
you're doing, how can you reflect
on it. The only people that you

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00:23:03,440 --> 00:23:07,599
can talk about it with are the
ones who are just as indoctrinated and are

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00:23:07,640 --> 00:23:15,559
being instructed to do the same shit. The next step in ranking your fellow

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00:23:15,680 --> 00:23:22,480
sisters is forming them into bump groups. And everyone in this bump group meets

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the same pianom So this is when
they bump each other and are like,

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00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:30,799
oh, like, I want you
to meet my other sister. This concept

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00:23:30,880 --> 00:23:34,920
confused me, and it was well
described in a BuzzFeed article called Here's what

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00:23:36,039 --> 00:23:40,079
sorority of recruitment is actually like,
and in the section about bump groups,

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00:23:40,119 --> 00:23:42,319
they say, quote, Let's say
you walk into a house for a party

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and are immediately greeted by mary Anne, who, unbeknownst to you, is

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00:23:47,559 --> 00:23:52,160
in position number one in her bump
group's order. You and Mary Anne will

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00:23:52,240 --> 00:23:56,000
chat for a few minutes, and
then oh mg, her friend Christie number

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00:23:56,000 --> 00:24:00,599
two in the bump group is here. Mary Anne produce you you were just

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00:24:00,640 --> 00:24:06,039
talking about bell buckles, which Christie
loves, and then Mary Anne and Christy

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00:24:06,079 --> 00:24:10,319
will talk to you two on one
for a few Then mary Anne will find

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00:24:10,359 --> 00:24:12,480
a way to politely excuse herself.
It was so great to meet you.

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00:24:12,599 --> 00:24:15,319
I'll let you two get to know
each other better, and you and Christy

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00:24:15,519 --> 00:24:19,359
will get a few minutes alone to
chat and then oh, hello, it's

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00:24:19,440 --> 00:24:25,960
Christie's friend Stacy, number three in
the bump group. The process repeats itself.

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00:24:26,440 --> 00:24:30,960
Meanwhile, Mary Anne has gone to
find and bump Claudia who is number

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00:24:30,000 --> 00:24:37,440
five aka the last position in the
bump group end quote. So they practice

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00:24:37,559 --> 00:24:45,039
this transition in the sorority boot camp
that takes place before sorority recruitment, and

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00:24:45,079 --> 00:24:48,720
we talked about it in the first
part of the recruitment special and at these

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00:24:48,920 --> 00:24:53,519
basically boot camps is where they learn
the choreography of this bump group rotation to

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00:24:53,599 --> 00:25:00,359
make it seem seamless and not at
all rehearsed. The VP of re went

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00:25:00,480 --> 00:25:06,599
at GW University told me how her
chapter does bump groups. The way that

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00:25:06,839 --> 00:25:11,640
I was told to do bump groups
is to have at least like two bump

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00:25:11,680 --> 00:25:15,440
groups that are just like the best
recruiters, and then from there on out,

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00:25:15,480 --> 00:25:18,279
for every other bump group, have
the first two people be the best

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00:25:18,279 --> 00:25:22,039
recruiters because they'll be the only people
talking to anyone, and then put everyone

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00:25:22,079 --> 00:25:26,359
else at the backs of the group
so they feel like they're part of a

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00:25:26,440 --> 00:25:30,599
group, but maybe they'll talk to
like three girls. In the Alphacai Delta

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00:25:30,759 --> 00:25:34,839
Bumping and Rotation guide that I found
online, I learned how this sorority would

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00:25:34,839 --> 00:25:38,839
create their bump groups. I'd like
to note that the excerpts that I'm about

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00:25:38,880 --> 00:25:42,680
to read from. The PDF has
been condensed for the purposes of the podcast,

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00:25:42,759 --> 00:25:47,640
but you can find the full PDF
in the show notes of today's episode.

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00:25:47,720 --> 00:25:52,359
This pdf says quote, bump rotations
are much more than a plan of

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00:25:52,400 --> 00:25:57,200
who talks to who. It includes
strategically matching sisters based on commonalities and recruitment

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00:25:57,279 --> 00:26:03,559
strength. Similar to establish a PNM
evaluation process, it is critical that chapter

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00:26:03,640 --> 00:26:07,160
members are evaluated as well. There's
a benefit to aligning the PMM and sister

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00:26:07,240 --> 00:26:11,799
evaluation process on the same number and
or color scale. By doing this,

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00:26:11,960 --> 00:26:18,119
the party matching efforts can be expedited
by simply matching the same colors splash numbers

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00:26:18,359 --> 00:26:22,240
to one another and factoring in commonalities
or deep connection points. At the very

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00:26:22,319 --> 00:26:26,599
least, sisters should be evaluated on
a one to three scale. For presentation,

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00:26:26,799 --> 00:26:32,200
the strongest recruiters are not necessarily those
who are most photogenic, but simply

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00:26:32,240 --> 00:26:36,480
sisters who show up on brand on
trend and put effort into presenting the very

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00:26:36,519 --> 00:26:40,720
best versions of themselves. These sisters
are also able to follow guidelines for all

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00:26:40,759 --> 00:26:44,039
areas of personal presentation, including attire, makeup, hair, nails, and

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00:26:44,079 --> 00:26:48,599
accessories. Sisters on the lower end
of the evaluation scale should not be in

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00:26:48,640 --> 00:26:52,599
the same groups as top strength recruiters
and vice versa. Matching also plays a

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00:26:52,599 --> 00:26:59,119
crucial component, especially when fump groups
are created to connect with specific demographics or

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00:26:59,200 --> 00:27:02,880
target area. P and ms want
to feel that they will fit in with

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00:27:02,920 --> 00:27:07,759
the chapter. Doing such intentional work
when creating bump groups should be translated into

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00:27:07,799 --> 00:27:12,519
intentional matching efforts to optimize the P
and M experience and give the chapter the

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00:27:12,559 --> 00:27:25,400
best chance of increasing priority statistics.
I spoke with Christine, an alumni from

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00:27:25,400 --> 00:27:29,599
the University of Maryland, who explained
to me how this matching process went down.

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00:27:29,720 --> 00:27:33,680
In her experience, was in a
room where there was a group of

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00:27:33,759 --> 00:27:37,039
like the hottest, most gorge fantastic
girls in the sorority, and they were

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00:27:37,160 --> 00:27:42,400
rushing a group of girls that were
like being talked about as like they really

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00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:45,960
wanted them. Like it was like
this group a group of freshman girls that

358
00:27:47,240 --> 00:27:51,319
were super cute and popular already amongst
the guys in our grade, and they

359
00:27:51,400 --> 00:27:52,799
knew that they all wanted to be
in the same sorority, so they wanted

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00:27:52,839 --> 00:27:56,240
to get them from arrival. I
remember saying, like, who are these

361
00:27:56,240 --> 00:27:59,359
girls? I'll look out for them, like I want to meet them too,

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00:27:59,440 --> 00:28:00,480
And one of the girl said to
me, will take care of it,

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00:28:00,559 --> 00:28:03,039
And I was like, you will
take care of what? Like if

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00:28:03,039 --> 00:28:07,079
this person joins the sorority, they're
my sorority sister too. I was a

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00:28:07,200 --> 00:28:10,599
very secure person at the time,
but I would say even now, I'd

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00:28:10,640 --> 00:28:12,720
be like, well, what makes
me unqualified to talk to them and try

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00:28:12,759 --> 00:28:15,279
to have them join us? You
know, like why are all the pretty

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00:28:15,279 --> 00:28:18,559
girls mask like the pretty girls?
And like I was diversity chair at the

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00:28:18,559 --> 00:28:22,240
time, so the amount of like
women of color I talked to, you

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00:28:22,240 --> 00:28:26,039
know, I talked to like the
odd ball, either any odd like odd

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00:28:26,079 --> 00:28:32,640
person or anybody of color was always
talking to me always because you were the

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00:28:32,680 --> 00:28:37,039
diversity chair. Yeah. And then
I also remember one girl emailing us in

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00:28:37,119 --> 00:28:40,480
the PHA and saying that she's Asian. In all sixteen houses, she got

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00:28:40,519 --> 00:28:42,720
matched with someone Asian for the first
round of recruitment. If you want to

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00:28:42,720 --> 00:28:48,119
know recruitment, that is recruitment.
What do you do when you might not

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00:28:48,240 --> 00:28:51,799
have any women of color in your
chapter? He matched them with the diversity

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00:28:51,880 --> 00:28:55,960
chair, got to show them this
is a safe space, no matter how

378
00:28:56,079 --> 00:29:00,640
seamless. This bump process, or
the matching process, or this whole fucking

379
00:29:00,839 --> 00:29:07,039
process can be. It's inevitable that
members of the chapter are going to catch

380
00:29:07,079 --> 00:29:11,960
on that there's some strategy behind this
all. And while it's inevitable that some

381
00:29:11,079 --> 00:29:15,319
might catch on, that doesn't mean
that the recruitment team isn't trying to prevent

382
00:29:15,440 --> 00:29:21,359
the members from catching on. In
the Alpha Fea recruitment expose, it states

383
00:29:21,440 --> 00:29:25,240
that quote at Beta Delta, we
told the girls that we grouped them in

384
00:29:25,279 --> 00:29:27,200
the way that we did to show
the p and ms that there was no

385
00:29:27,279 --> 00:29:32,759
typical Beta Delta girl, And that's
exactly what we did. We ensured that

386
00:29:32,839 --> 00:29:37,200
the girls in each bump group were
quote different from each other. We ensured

387
00:29:37,240 --> 00:29:41,359
that each bump group had a mix
of girls from Florida and California and Chicago,

388
00:29:41,880 --> 00:29:44,960
rather than having a bump group of
girls who were all from Michigan.

389
00:29:45,200 --> 00:29:48,640
We ensured that each bump group had
some louder girls who were full of personality,

390
00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:53,200
and also some were laid back,
easygoing girls. We ensured that each

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00:29:53,240 --> 00:29:57,720
bump group had an even ratio of
blondes to brunettes. But among these quote

392
00:29:57,880 --> 00:30:03,599
unique differences, there was one way
that the girls in each bump group,

393
00:30:03,759 --> 00:30:08,640
without question, were exactly the same. Bump Group one would only include sisters

394
00:30:08,680 --> 00:30:14,079
who were scored as nines and tens. Bump Group fourteen would include only sisters

395
00:30:14,079 --> 00:30:18,359
who were scored as ones and twos. Bump groups ten to fourteen and their

396
00:30:18,400 --> 00:30:22,519
pnms would sit on the hardwood chairs
in the brown empty dining room. Bump

397
00:30:22,519 --> 00:30:26,759
groups one to three would get comfortable
on the couches in the smaller extra living

398
00:30:26,839 --> 00:30:32,079
room. The idea was that in
this enclosed space, p and ms would

399
00:30:32,079 --> 00:30:36,720
look around at the room full of
pretty beta Delta girls and the pretty pnms

400
00:30:36,759 --> 00:30:41,440
whom they were rushing, and admire
these girls who might all become their sisters.

401
00:30:41,799 --> 00:30:45,599
The chaos that we worked so hard
to control fiercely returned. During the

402
00:30:45,640 --> 00:30:49,200
ten minute scoring break between each round, the living room girls would whisper shout

403
00:30:49,279 --> 00:30:55,000
about girls they've wanted as their little
sisters, and the dining room girls would

404
00:30:55,000 --> 00:31:00,359
stare enviously and whine about how they
hadn't met anyone good yet. It didn't

405
00:31:00,400 --> 00:31:03,000
take more than a few rounds for
the dining room girls to figure out that

406
00:31:03,039 --> 00:31:07,880
they had not met and might not
meet, a single girl who quote reminded

407
00:31:07,920 --> 00:31:12,319
them of their current sisters. The
rest of the year would be the dining

408
00:31:12,400 --> 00:31:23,279
room against the living room end quote. So it seems to me that different

409
00:31:23,559 --> 00:31:29,640
chapters might need to utilize the system
in different ways. So some might be

410
00:31:29,720 --> 00:31:33,799
more strategic about it in the way
that they're trying to show this one group

411
00:31:33,839 --> 00:31:37,799
of p and ms that they actually
do have girls from the South and so

412
00:31:37,880 --> 00:31:42,400
even though this is the Northeast school
and you can still find girls just like

413
00:31:42,559 --> 00:31:48,039
you. And another chapter might be
strategic in another way, like by matching

414
00:31:48,039 --> 00:31:52,480
the Asian pnms with the one Asian
sister and the chapter. But whatever strategy

415
00:31:52,599 --> 00:31:59,400
they're using, it comes down to
one common denominator, which is doing whatever

416
00:31:59,480 --> 00:32:05,079
it takes to attain the high valued
recruits, and if you're a lower tier,

417
00:32:05,160 --> 00:32:08,279
it means doing whatever it takes to
form a full pledge class, even

418
00:32:08,279 --> 00:32:13,680
if that means that by doing that, they're breaking down the sisterhood that they're

419
00:32:13,720 --> 00:32:20,880
actually promoting. It's a front,
it's a trick, it's a gag,

420
00:32:21,440 --> 00:32:25,440
it's a prank, and I was
pranked. You were pranked. Another part

421
00:32:25,519 --> 00:32:30,799
of this prank that they pull on
the p and ms is that sororities brands

422
00:32:30,880 --> 00:32:37,599
themselves as philanthropic organizations. In the
last episode, we learned from the book

423
00:32:37,799 --> 00:32:43,319
Terror, Love and Brainwashing by Alexandra
Stein that cultic groups have a front group,

424
00:32:43,519 --> 00:32:47,279
which is the public face of the
group, and these front groups exist

425
00:32:47,400 --> 00:32:54,680
for the purposes of recruitment and fundraising. So in sorority chapters, it seems

426
00:32:54,680 --> 00:33:00,319
like their front groups are their philanthropies
that they claim to so passionate about.

427
00:33:00,559 --> 00:33:06,000
I mean, there's even a whole
round in recruitment called Philanthropy Round that is

428
00:33:06,039 --> 00:33:10,400
dedicated to talking about that chapter's philanthropy. An example of a sorority philanthropy is

429
00:33:10,559 --> 00:33:16,039
Tri Delta and their national partnership with
Saint Jude's Children's Research Hospital. On Tri

430
00:33:16,200 --> 00:33:21,799
Delta's website, they state that quote
Tri Delta is changing the way the world

431
00:33:21,839 --> 00:33:27,880
treats and defeats childhood cancer through their
powerful philanthropic work end quote. I spoke

432
00:33:27,920 --> 00:33:31,400
with Maggie, a former P and
M who had lost a leg due to

433
00:33:31,480 --> 00:33:36,960
childhood cancer. Maggie shared with me
what it was like to rush Tri Delt,

434
00:33:37,079 --> 00:33:43,440
a sorority that consistently boasts about how
their philanthropy is so integral to their

435
00:33:43,480 --> 00:33:47,720
sisterhood. So when I first rushed
there, was tri delt on my campus

436
00:33:47,759 --> 00:33:52,640
and I was like, oh my
god. Their philanthropy is childhood cancer awareness,

437
00:33:52,839 --> 00:33:57,000
which that's why I lost my life
to the cancer. I've raised so

438
00:33:57,119 --> 00:33:59,839
much money for child cancer throughout my
life. I'm super involved in this.

439
00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:01,880
I would love to be in that
philanthropy because I feel like I have so

440
00:34:01,960 --> 00:34:07,000
much to give. And then during
RUSH, I'm like telling them, like,

441
00:34:07,039 --> 00:34:09,159
I'm really interested in your philanthropy and
I've done this and this, and

442
00:34:09,199 --> 00:34:14,519
then the next day they fucking dropped
me. They literally immediately dropped me.

443
00:34:14,920 --> 00:34:17,679
I'm like, there's someone's literally standing
in front of you, being like,

444
00:34:17,719 --> 00:34:22,199
I'm a childoo cancer survivor. I've
raised at least thirty thousand dollars in my

445
00:34:22,280 --> 00:34:27,239
life or childhood cancer research. I'm
telling you how much this philanthropy has affected

446
00:34:27,280 --> 00:34:31,760
me, and then you then you
dropped me. I sobbed, sobbed.

447
00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:36,480
I was like, maybe they just
didn't think I was pretty enough, because

448
00:34:36,559 --> 00:34:39,800
during RUSH I never tried to hide
my prosthetic leg. But during RUSH,

449
00:34:39,920 --> 00:34:44,360
I remember being like, maybe I
should have worn pants, Like maybe they

450
00:34:44,360 --> 00:34:46,800
saw my leg and like they didn't
like how it looked. It was the

451
00:34:46,800 --> 00:34:51,360
first time I was like I feel
embarrassed because of the way I have one

452
00:34:51,440 --> 00:34:54,440
leg, and I'm like, imagine
if you had someone in your sorority who

453
00:34:54,719 --> 00:34:59,000
was a childhood cancer survivor and could
speak on that. Oh my gosh,

454
00:34:59,119 --> 00:35:01,119
imagine they impact that would have.
They don't give a fuck. Don't give

455
00:35:01,119 --> 00:35:05,960
a fuck. They're like, now, we don't really, we don't really

456
00:35:05,960 --> 00:35:08,039
like the way you look. I
went into it having pure intentions. I

457
00:35:08,079 --> 00:35:12,079
found a strority that I love there, Philippy. I have a personal connection

458
00:35:12,119 --> 00:35:14,320
to it. And then after that
I was like, well, yes,

459
00:35:14,440 --> 00:35:16,119
I just gotta play this game.
I just gotta work harder for the other

460
00:35:16,119 --> 00:35:21,719
top tier strorities I have left.
Maggie quickly realized that if she wanted to

461
00:35:21,760 --> 00:35:23,880
make it out of recruitment with a
bid, she would have to adjust her

462
00:35:23,920 --> 00:35:30,880
mindset to play the game. The
competitive nature of recruitment is not a recent

463
00:35:30,920 --> 00:35:36,079
development. I learned this and Women
of Discriminating Taste, a book by Margaret

464
00:35:36,079 --> 00:35:42,000
Freeman, who is an independent scholar
that researches sororities. Freeman's book provided key

465
00:35:42,280 --> 00:35:46,199
insight into the history behind sorority recruitment, which you can hear more about in

466
00:35:46,239 --> 00:35:51,079
the first or second part of the
recruitment special. But as we're nearing the

467
00:35:51,280 --> 00:35:54,880
end of this recruitment special, I
think it would be fitting for Freeman to

468
00:35:54,960 --> 00:36:00,679
tell us where the term rush even
comes from. The term rush seems to

469
00:36:00,679 --> 00:36:05,000
have come in part from the action
of hurting to meet the new women as

470
00:36:05,000 --> 00:36:08,719
they arrived on campus, and also
from the slang dating term rushing someone as

471
00:36:08,880 --> 00:36:13,840
you're spending a lot of time and
effort paying them compliments and trying to woo

472
00:36:13,920 --> 00:36:17,000
them, almost in a romantic sense. As Diana Turk explains in her book

473
00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:21,719
about the history of Cap Alpha Feta
Scorty women at the late nineteenth and early

474
00:36:21,760 --> 00:36:24,760
twentieth centuries, we're basically in competition
to meet the new students on campus.

475
00:36:24,760 --> 00:36:29,800
First, the sory woman went out
to approach the perspective rushies. They had

476
00:36:29,840 --> 00:36:32,599
to go promote their story chapter as
the best one on campus. So they

477
00:36:32,599 --> 00:36:38,159
were trying to lure these quote unquote
most desirable new students to pledge their chapter,

478
00:36:38,480 --> 00:36:42,239
and you wanted to go out and
beat your rivals in doing that,

479
00:36:42,320 --> 00:36:45,800
And in extreme circumstances, women were
literally rushing or running to the train station

480
00:36:45,880 --> 00:36:51,519
to be the first to introduce themselves
to get their chapters foot in the door,

481
00:36:51,519 --> 00:36:53,679
so to speak, and hope that
they can make them best impression on

482
00:36:53,719 --> 00:36:58,159
the women that they felt were the
top rushies in the incoming class. And

483
00:36:58,159 --> 00:37:00,960
it should be noted that the group
that came the NPC, the National Panel

484
00:37:00,960 --> 00:37:05,079
and the conference. It was actually
established around the turn of the twentieth century

485
00:37:05,119 --> 00:37:08,280
to try to create some rules around
rushing and to cool off the heated rivalries.

486
00:37:09,239 --> 00:37:15,159
NPC bringing in the rules I see
you, so the sobrity ladies were

487
00:37:15,199 --> 00:37:20,639
no longer allowed to rush those high
valued recruits right when they first met them,

488
00:37:20,920 --> 00:37:24,079
and they could no longer say things
like rush tried out. You can

489
00:37:24,079 --> 00:37:29,599
see this rule in the twenty twenty
five MW recruitment packet that we went through

490
00:37:29,679 --> 00:37:32,239
in the first part of the recruitment
special. In the packet, when talking

491
00:37:32,280 --> 00:37:38,360
about the sorority members interactions with the
PMMs before recruitment, it states, quote,

492
00:37:39,079 --> 00:37:43,480
you are able to follow them back
on social media. If you see

493
00:37:43,480 --> 00:37:45,400
them in a store, you are
encouraged to talk to them. You,

494
00:37:45,440 --> 00:37:50,519
however, are not able to bid, promise or anything of the sort.

495
00:37:50,960 --> 00:37:54,960
You should be saying things such as
go Greek. I'm happy I went Greek.

496
00:37:55,599 --> 00:38:00,239
You are even able to say you
are five MW. But please in

497
00:38:00,440 --> 00:38:08,000
caps, do not in caps say
go find you. Please start taking your

498
00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:14,159
Instagram accounts off private so p and
ms can see us. I strongly encourage

499
00:38:14,159 --> 00:38:16,920
you to share all the fine you
photos slash posts you have on all your

500
00:38:16,920 --> 00:38:22,599
social media platforms. Please do not
dirty rush girls. Simply push them to

501
00:38:22,679 --> 00:38:27,360
go Greek and be their friends.
The rest will fall into place during formal

502
00:38:27,440 --> 00:38:35,159
recruitment. End quote. To me, this shows that they just do little

503
00:38:35,199 --> 00:38:38,639
things like make a rule to make
things seem more fair, but the competitive

504
00:38:38,760 --> 00:38:45,159
environment does not change. I mean, just listen to what Christine said about

505
00:38:45,199 --> 00:38:50,960
her chapter's mindset when trying to acquire
a group of high valued recruits. They

506
00:38:51,079 --> 00:38:54,199
wanted those girls in the sorority,
so that's the other sorority didn't have them.

507
00:38:54,239 --> 00:38:57,960
It wasn't oh, we're so excited
to get to know these girls.

508
00:38:57,960 --> 00:39:01,239
It's like those girls Instagram esthetic is
fantastic and she seems nice, but also

509
00:39:01,440 --> 00:39:06,639
try it out wants them, so
we have to get them. I learned

510
00:39:06,679 --> 00:39:10,199
from Freeman that the open house round, which is the first round of recruitment

511
00:39:10,239 --> 00:39:15,639
where all the pnms are required to
meet all the sorority chapters was actually created

512
00:39:15,920 --> 00:39:22,079
to end the practice of dirty rushing
and make recruitments seem more fair. By

513
00:39:22,159 --> 00:39:25,599
signing up instead of being sought out, and by getting the chance to meet

514
00:39:25,639 --> 00:39:30,119
all of the sororities during the open
house round, p and ms could then

515
00:39:30,159 --> 00:39:34,800
infer that they were all being considered
for membership. But given what we learned

516
00:39:34,840 --> 00:39:39,760
from the recruitment special we know that
not all pnms are actually being considered.

517
00:39:40,039 --> 00:39:45,960
But with these new rules, sororities
would of course have to get strategic and

518
00:39:45,119 --> 00:39:51,440
develop some sort of process that would
make it seem like all recruits are being

519
00:39:51,440 --> 00:39:58,440
considered. And this process is the
orchestrated and choreographed process that we see today

520
00:39:58,880 --> 00:40:02,599
with the pres and the matching system. In my interview with Freeman, she

521
00:40:02,719 --> 00:40:08,800
elaborates earlier on it was less orchestrated. There's not these rounds of the parties,

522
00:40:08,800 --> 00:40:12,639
the open house round. It's in
the pref night that we seem to

523
00:40:12,719 --> 00:40:16,039
be used to and has been going
on for decades now. It probably became

524
00:40:16,360 --> 00:40:22,960
worse and sort of more unnatural because
of the choreography of having rush the way

525
00:40:23,000 --> 00:40:27,280
it is with the different parties and
who you talk to win and have being

526
00:40:27,320 --> 00:40:30,280
a certain place and moved to a
certain other place with the person the right

527
00:40:30,360 --> 00:40:37,840
person. They saw this open house
round as being more egalitarian than before.

528
00:40:37,079 --> 00:40:42,239
It was supposed to keep that problem
of well, we're not even going to

529
00:40:42,280 --> 00:40:45,239
look at them because we don't know
them from happening, and lets you have

530
00:40:45,320 --> 00:40:49,719
more opportunities to meet other women on
both sides. But the people get cut

531
00:40:49,760 --> 00:40:54,880
and so as you still were not
seen as somebody they wanted. And all

532
00:40:54,920 --> 00:41:04,800
the choreography, calculation and scientific precision
that recruitment entails has been developed and perfected

533
00:41:04,920 --> 00:41:08,480
in order to engineer a top tier
pledge class or hit quota for that semester.

534
00:41:09,039 --> 00:41:14,760
And it makes sense why there's all
of this choreography and calculation, because

535
00:41:14,800 --> 00:41:20,639
they're selling this as a process that
happens naturally and is based on compatibility.

536
00:41:20,840 --> 00:41:24,719
So you should just trust the process
because it'll lead you to your forever home.

537
00:41:24,960 --> 00:41:29,639
It kept saying you're going to run
home on mid day, like you're

538
00:41:29,679 --> 00:41:32,119
going to go back home. So
while the PMMs don't know it, and

539
00:41:32,239 --> 00:41:37,920
sometimes the members of the chapter themselves
don't know it, we can conclude that

540
00:41:37,960 --> 00:41:43,719
the open house round is another part
of their facade. After learning about the

541
00:41:43,800 --> 00:41:49,400
historical context of these groups, and
after hearing from primary sources who experience the

542
00:41:49,400 --> 00:41:53,199
other side of recruitment, we've been
able to put the different pieces together and

543
00:41:53,360 --> 00:41:59,840
complete the recruitment puzzle. So hopefully
you can now see a full picture of

544
00:42:00,119 --> 00:42:06,320
what this puzzle looks like. What
I'm seeing is that these discriminatory cults that

545
00:42:06,480 --> 00:42:15,719
run freely on American college campuses brands
themselves as philanthropic social clubs that are inclusive

546
00:42:15,039 --> 00:42:22,000
and empower women. But what do
you see as the full picture? Does

547
00:42:22,159 --> 00:42:31,519
this look like inclusivity and empowerment to
you, Snapped, We've been waiting for

548
00:42:31,639 --> 00:42:37,840
you all winter and we're so glad
you're finally here. Thank you so much

549
00:42:37,880 --> 00:42:42,920
for listening to the Snaps Recruitment Special. Before I get to my thank yous

550
00:42:42,960 --> 00:42:46,440
to the people who made this recruitment
special possible, please rate, review,

551
00:42:46,760 --> 00:42:51,840
subscribe, share this episode to your
Instagram story, and send it to your

552
00:42:51,840 --> 00:42:57,360
subrity sisters. Please do whatever you
can to spread the word as Snapped is

553
00:42:57,400 --> 00:43:02,440
an independent podcast. Now to my
thank yous. First off, thank you

554
00:43:02,480 --> 00:43:07,480
to all the women that I interviewed
for this special. This special would not

555
00:43:07,599 --> 00:43:12,559
exist if it wasn't for your bravery
and willingness to tell your story. Next,

556
00:43:12,679 --> 00:43:15,320
I'd like to thank Margaret Freeman.
Right when I finished the first chapter

557
00:43:15,400 --> 00:43:21,039
of Freeman's book, Woman of Discriminating
Taste, I knew that it would have

558
00:43:21,079 --> 00:43:23,920
to be featured on this season.
If you're interested in sorority history, you

559
00:43:23,960 --> 00:43:29,239
need to buy yourself a copy at
Margaret L. Freeman dot com. My

560
00:43:29,320 --> 00:43:35,880
next thank you is to Savannah Jerome
soulbachin I Snapped intern throughout the spring and

561
00:43:35,960 --> 00:43:39,519
summer of twenty twenty one. Savvy
and I would do things like dissect and

562
00:43:39,760 --> 00:43:45,760
understand the book Fraternities Without Brotherhood.
My next thank you goes to Meghan Thompson,

563
00:43:46,079 --> 00:43:52,920
the Snapped copy editor. Any written
content is always proofred and spruced up

564
00:43:52,000 --> 00:43:57,679
by this talented woman. Of course, I need to shout out Nila Gottlia,

565
00:43:57,960 --> 00:44:01,599
the Snapped audio engineer, Taylor Jones, the artist who created the season

566
00:44:01,599 --> 00:44:07,039
two cover art, Sienna Sharer,
the musician who created the Snap theme song,

567
00:44:07,360 --> 00:44:10,760
and Mello Rello, the musician who
produced the Snapped outro that you're listening

568
00:44:10,800 --> 00:44:15,800
to right now. And last,
but not least, I'd like to thank

569
00:44:15,119 --> 00:44:22,599
myself for conducting interviews, editing,
producing the special reading these books, writing

570
00:44:22,599 --> 00:44:28,400
episode outlines, creating narrations, creating
promotions, emailing all the interviewees to ensure

571
00:44:28,400 --> 00:44:32,679
that they're comfortable with the content,
writing episode descriptions, etc. Thank you

572
00:44:32,760 --> 00:44:37,599
to me for sticking through with season
two. Thank you so much to everyone

573
00:44:37,639 --> 00:44:43,840
again, and thank you for listening
and supporting in this process. To us

574
00:44:43,960 --> 00:44:50,000
the process and abolished Greek life and
fuck recruitment. I'll talk with y'all soon.

575
00:44:50,639 --> 00:44:54,880
Bye. Snapped