Active - A college sorority woman who has been formally initiated.
Alumnae - An initiated sorority member no longer in college.
Bid - A formal invitation to join a sorority.
Bid Matching - During formal rush, the process by which rushees preferences for membership are matched with the chapter’s preferential list of possible members.
Chapter - A collegiate group of a national fraternity or sorority.
Continuous Open Bidding (COB) - The period immediately after the designated formal rush period ends in which unaffiliated women may pledge a sorority without prior participation in a formal rushing period.
Dirty Rushing - Any violation of a rule set by the Rutgers’ Panhellenic Council.
Formal Rush - The major period of time set aside by the Panhellenic Council for the sororities to select prospective members.
Fraternity - Formally the name applied to all Greek letter organizations. Informally, the name applied to all men’s groups.
Informal Rush - Membership Selection period conducted at various times throughout the year.
Initiated Member - A woman who has completed pledging and has been initiated into full membership of her sorority.
Initiation - Formal induction into full membership.
Legacy - A woman whose mother, sister or grandmother is an initiated member of a sorority.
National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) - A national organization composed of 26 member women’s fraternities, each of which is autonomous as a social Greek letter society of college women, undergraduates and alumnae.
New Member - A rushee who has accepted a bid.
Panhellenic Council - The central governing body of all NPC sororities, made up of one student delegate representing each chapter at Rutgers.
Quota - A system which allows each sorority to pledge a specified number of women based on the number of women participating in formal rush. The total number of women going through rush is divided by the number of sororities.
Rush Counselors - Greek women carefully selected and trained to guide rushees and answer any questions regarding rush
Silence - The period during formal rush in which no contact, written or oral is allowed between sorority members and rushees, concerning sorority matters. Sorority members shall not influence or pressure rushees when they are outside of a rush function. Normal friendly contact which is described as brief conversation with NO mention of rush is permitted.
Snap Bid - A time set aside during formal rush for chapters that did not make quota to offer bids only to women who have not been matched during the formal rush process. After bid matching, but before bid lists are distributed or made public, chapters that did not make quota are invited to snap bid to quota.
Total - A total number of women allowed in chapter determined by the campus Panhellenic. Every chapter is allowed to make quota during the formal rush period. The groups that reach quota, but do not make total are permitted to continue rushing until they reach that number. At Rutgers total is 100.
