If I was kicked out of a pledge class, can I rush other fraternities?
 

So long story short, last weekend during pre-game for a football game at my school, I had a little bit too much to drink, threw up a couple times, and broke a toilet. Because of this my bid was withdrawn, and i am no longer part of the pledge class. My question is, can I rush other fraternities in the Winter/Spring, or I am pretty much screwed.

If you weren't initiated then you are allowed to pledge at another fraternity. That being said, depending on the size of the Greek community, you might be screwed anyway.

It may depend on how you broke the toilet. Is it just a plumbing issue or did you break the porcelain?

Psi U: It's a pretty big school with a huge greek community, plus the fraternity I was pledging at was pretty small and relatively new on campus.
Senusret: I broke the tank cover, which was porcelain, but everything else on the toilet I think works fine, and I did pay them back for it.

I'm really sorry, but this is a major LOLWTFBBQ moment for me.

You might get lucky. However keep in mind if the story spreads, you might have no real chance. I hope you take this as a life lesson to better control yourself while drinking.

So you acted like a freshman, got hammered, barfed a few times, and tore up something (which you paid back). Jeez, if doing that warranted depledging, my pledge class would have been a person of 1 instead of 30. (LOL)

No kidding. They just booted you? There was no conversation with your big bro or the pledgemaster or anything?

OMFG

Maybe he broke the toilet while hooking up with the pledgemaster's gf in the bathroom?

RM issue if he's underage.

All jokes aside, if this is a new fraternity on campus they may feel that they can't get away with this type of stuff.

Well, we hadn't exactly gotten to the big brother part of pledging yet, but the kid who I'm pretty sure was going to be my big-bro said, and several others who were there (while I was still drunk, so I don't remember the details) said something to the affect of everyone deserves a second chance, and then proceeded to tell me stuff pledges and brothers had done in the past, including breaking doors, punching holes in walls, and lighting up a joint in the middle of a night club, so idk. But other than that, I had no real conversation with anyone, other than a phone call the next day telling me my bid was withdrawn. And what does RM mean?

RM = Risk Management.

You don't have a lot of time to showcase yourself during pledging, so they can only 'figure you out' based on your actions up to that point. You might have come off as "the guy who broke our toilet because he can't handle his alcohol. He's going to cause problems in the future."

No kidding. Yeah, breaking the toilet is over the top but a freshman having a bad night isn't exactly breaking news.

OP, you are allowed to re-rush, just keep your nose clean from now on. You've learned your limit, so don't go past it again. Hopefully other fraternities will then assume it was a freshman mistake, and you've learned your lesson.

Honestly, people's tolerance of first year students will be based on their experiences and expectations. For instance, I take an underage and wild young drinker very seriously because that isn't how my collegiate experience was and that wasn't the expectation that was set for myself and others in my circle.

And, as previously stated, when you add potential RM issues to the mix, it goes beyond being tolerant because some people think what the OP did is a typical first year thing to do.

Something tells me we're not getting the full story here.

There has to be more to this. What the hell kind of house "withdraws" a bid due to one not too terrible incident. What the hell kind of house boots you out without any formal action where you get to offer mitigation. You paid for the tank lid 'cuz you were wasted and broke it? Damn, we blew up the john with cherry bombs and the result was that we had to clean up the mess and pay for a new one. The actives thought we were showing signs of coming together and they/we used photos of the blown up john for years after as part of 'party hearty' recruitment displays.
We probably would have checked you out as a good prospect once it was known that you were the guy who got sauced and busted up the john and then took responsibility and paid for repairs and so on. Every house has a couple of wild guys who know when to get crazy and when to cool it and fly right. If there isn't more to the story like you broke the tank cover over the pledge masters head or something worse you are probably better off away from that bunch of .....
Find a good house that you get along with and go for it if your school has COB. If not, rush again next opportunity. Good Luck!

Even if you didn't drink as a freshman, I just can't see an 18 year old drinking too much as a surprise. Your average 18 year old WILL make stupid choices, probably lots of varied levels of stupid choices. I've never had a problem with the new member that has a bad night because she's never had that much to drink before. She might embarrass herself, but if she's learned her lesson and doesn't repeat the indecent, no problem. That doesn't necessarily add up to a "wild drinker". Now the new member that gets that out of control at every party is a different story...that's a sign that she's going to be causing trouble for a good long while, and some sort of action needs to be taken from a reprimand to expulsion.

Though in a fraternity, I would think drinking is even less of a surprise. Mind you, this is from my experience around fraternities at my campus, Auburn, UA, Ole Miss, etc. If this kid hasn't pulled a similar stunt before, I think expelling him seems overboard. But who knows...maybe this is incident #2, 3, or 4...?

Like agzg (I think) said earlier, if this was 1) a brand new organization or 2) an organization that's already being watched by the school/IHQ, they might not want to take the risk, even if the behavior was not uncommon for someone his age.

Drinking too much and acting wild because of it. It actually was a surprise to some people, myself included. It made most of my friends and me say "damn...is alcohol that serious?" We all became chapter Sorors, so our opinions on binge drinking in general, underage binge drinkers, and out of control partiers had a huge impact on chapter operations and interactions with aspirants.

I'm not saying that most people are surprised. But, reading people in this thread say "haha...freshmen" actually raises an eyebrow. LOL. Anyway, assuming we only know half the real story in this thread, I think that chapter's response makes sense and wasn't extreme.

Yep and they could just think the OP is drunkcrazy and not want the risk, period. That's one helluva first impression.

I was just offering another reason why some chapters (and not just sorority chapters) may be more strict on certain things.

Maybe he was on the douche borderline to begin with (half the bros liked him, half thought he was a douche but were encouraged to give him a chance) and this just pushed him over the edge.

Also, if it got around campus and there are other fraternities gunning for you (or an administration gunning for you) they won't hesistate to call up your HQ and tell all about it. In that case it's best for the fraternity to show they won't tolerate that sort of behavior.

I'm with y'all, although the more may be what others have suggested -- that the chapter is already being watched and couldn't afford the risk. But I wouldn't be surprised if there's even more to the story.

Co-sign with all the people above saying we don't have the whole story. I just find it really hard to beleive a fraterntiy at a school with a huge greek life presence would kick someone out over this.

I'm thinking maybe this isn't the first time something like this has happened and there is a pattern. Or maybe they regretted giving the kid a bid and needed an excuse to kick him out.

On my campus, some kid got his bid taken away on induction night because he got so wasted and puked during the ceremony (My chapter passed on him because he had sexual predator written all over him. Like, take the worst of Jersey Shore and multiply it by 100)

How's the air up there in that Ivory Tower?

Think about some of the Greek systems around the country who lost half of their fraternities for an array of unforgivable/stupid/dangerous things. Do you think when any of those fraternities got back on campus they wouldn't be this hard core? Newish chapter could mean back on campus after getting kicked off 10 years ago because a pledge died from an alcohol incident. Not saying it is, but you could imagine THAT house would have a zero tolerance policy. And maybe a pledge wouldn't appreciate the gravity of that situation not knowing the whole back story.

I wish him the best of luck and maybe a little clarity on the evils of drinking to excess. It's not just your liver that can suffer; your social life can too.

My money's still on breaking the toilet while in the bathroom hooking up with the pledgemaster's girlfriend.

Please elaborate on HOW you broke the tank. I know that you will have to rely on what others told you that you did that night. But there does seem to me to be a difference between stupidly sitting/leaning on the tank (solo - not with a hook-up) and something like out-of-control sledgehammering of the tank. That is, did they see a side of you that was really frightening - more than puking and knocking off the tank top?

Each to his own, I guess. I didn't drink at all in high school (literally...my first drink was given to me well into my first semester of college, too despite my friends in college being pretty crazy) and my friends weren't partiers, but I knew what the "popular" crowd was up to on the weekends. I guess breaking the toilet wouldn't have been news to me as I heard stories like this frequently in high school both from my classmates and my friends from surrounding high schools. So despite being very goody-two-shoes when I first came to college I wasn't fazed by this sort of thing.

Generally when an active or new member had a public, notorious night there were repercussions, but not expulsion (and from witnessing shenanigans from friends in other sororities, that was what the other chapters did as well...I know very, very few people that were kicked out but plenty that got sick/had to be taken home/etc.). Expulsion IMO would have been reserved for the girl that got out of control every time she drank and refused to lay off the booze. In other words, one big hot mess. Of the girls I know that have been expelled from chapters on campus it usually came down to finance, more than one arrest (the first one being something small, like an MIP...I'm sure something more serious wouldn't warrant two strikes), perpetual public drug use, unabashed and perpetual sluttiness/drunkness/stoned-ness.

I understand there are many reasons the chapter could have had to do this...previous trouble for alcohol, already in trouble for something else, new chapter still getting on its feet. I'm just saying on the off chance he didn't leave one of these reasons out...it's much.

I don't think it's much. And why it may not be much for some chapters was my point.

Wonderful. How's the air down there in the jealous pit?

Wouldn't know. Thanks for asking.

Sure you do.

Ok. If you say so. Have a nice day.

No shit. Shut the fuck up next time.

I'm sorry you feel like my assessment of your "Holier Than Thou" attitude was incorrect, but I stand by it nonetheless. Also, the having to have the last word thing with you is getting really old.

Eta: This ^ applies v

You already excused yourself. Why are you still here?