Commuter School Rush
 

So I am apart of a fraternity at California State University Northridge. We are a commuter school sadly and it is very difficult for us to get numbers. We have just lost our house, so our rush events have to be held on campus. Our chapter is taking the loss of the house hard and their moral is down. We have a history of bad recruitment in numbers, we wish to change this.

Does any one have any ideas of how to get people to join at a commuter school? Or perhaps just a rush event on campus that will attract people to come later in the day to check us out?

Do the events *have* to be held on campus?

Maybe each member of your chapter can invite an unaffiliated person to an off-site event like a pool tournament at a pool hall or something fun like that?

I'm from FIU, which is like.. the mother of all commuter schools. However, we (as in most fraternities) still have successful rushes and it didn't stop my particular chapter from being the top TKE chapter in recruitment this past school year. And we don't have our house yet, only 2 of the 11 IFC chapters have houses.

Our Rush Schedule this past Summer Rush (which I'm guessing your campus doesn't have) looked something like this: Monday - Hookah Night, Tuesday - Billiards Night, Wednesday - Pig Roast + Meet the Brothers, Thursday - Poker Night.

Only the Pig Roast was on-campus, in the Housing Quad. But if you can host events off-campus then do that.

However, if you're waiting until Rush Week to pick up guys then you're screwed. The best chapters anywhere are the ones that have guys lined up for a pledge class long before the official Rush Week.

But then that goes into the whole issue of Recruitment vs Rush and I'm too lazy to type that up now, lol. You're chapter just has to learn how to recruit guys before Rush Week (e.g. holding pre-rush recruitment events)

I like the idea of a pool hall, but any others?

The events do not have to be held on campus, but would be better.

Well I guess the question is, what do you have on campus in the way of facilities? What's in the student center, etc.

At commuter schools, there are quite a few students who go to class and go home. They have no reason to stick around on campus, so they have very little interaction with a large number of students throughout the day, which makes it very unlikely that you're reaching them. So who do these students spend a good portion of time with while they're on campus? ...

Professors.

Write to the professors on campus! Ask them for names of students that they believe would fit the mold of your fellow members. Outline your accomplishments and goals, and then ask if there are students that they could refer to you that they think would best represent the fraternity and the school. Provide your phone number, address, and email address for them to respond to you.

I know that my school website has a student directory where you can just type in a student's name and it brings up their major, phone number, and address, and email address. Use that if you have it.

Once you've received the information about the student, send them a letter (you could also send an email, but that might not be as effective.. plus, letters are more formal, and hey.. who doesn't like getting mail when it's not a bill?!). Outline your purpose and the benefits of being in a fraternity. Briefly describe any academic achievements by your chapter or individual members, and also your philanthropic endeavors. Mention other activities that members of your organization are involved in. Also, list things that you wish to accomplish. If your chapter hopes to earn the highest Greek GPA for the upcoming year, talk about how. Then relate that to the student. Tell them that you received their name from a respected member of the faculty who thought that they would be a great asset to the organization. And tell them how they could help. If they have high grades, they could help you to earn that higher overall GPA. Talk about how the fraternity could better their college experience, and how their potential involvement could benefit the fraternity.

At the end of the letter, invite them to your recruitment events. And tell them to bring a friend if they like!

The best part about this idea... it's free!

thats too bad. there are a lot of people at CSUN who would be interested in joining a fraternity so dont get too down.

Getting members shouldn't be much different with or without a house.

It's still basically the same concept, and unless your school has big houses which sleep 10/20+, what's the big deal with a house anyhow? A house takes a HUGE bite out of your budget. Now everything can go to brotherhood.

You may want to partner up with your alumni and start diverting money to a house fund. It shouldn't be hard to find 10/20% to move into that fund. Couple that with alumni fundraising and you'll be in a great position several years from now.

Hookers and coke

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I would highly advise against this, especially at a state school in CA. Many public university professors are anti-greek, and at the school in question (CSUN), my own sisters were told to either take their letters off or leave the class by one professor.

I work in higher education, and I believe it is inappropriate to make such a request of professors and/or staff. It is not our job to find members for fraternities and sororities. Further, referring students in this manner could be a violation of FERPA.

I can't believe a professor at a public University in California would make students take off letters (I'm assuming a jacket or a sweatshirt) or leave class. Unless it is disruptive (clothing with profanity or showing all the goods) or inappropriate for the class (wearing stilletos for kick boxing) that professor has no right to tell people what to wear. I wonder if they have tenure?

^This person not only had tenure, but is one of the leading Chicano scholars. Long story short, many (if not most) Latino/Chicano faculty in CA are VERY MUCH against Latino/a greeks...but that's another thread.

wow, that's kind of sad. I know a lot of people who take this approach to getting names of new members, and professors are usually more than willing to help out. While I didn't have a huge greek system at my school, and some professors did not like Greek life, there were also a good portion of professors who supported us. And sometimes they were the ones that we would have never known about had we not asked.

I am getting the sense you attended a smaller school, and you're also in a different part of the country. I've worked and attended various campuses in CA, and for the most part, professors view the greek community as an annoying part of campus life. It shouldn't be that way, but it often is the case. Either way, I still feel it is not a professor or staff person's job to find members for student organizations, unless he/she is an advisor to that group and wants to help with recruitment.

The most I do is encourage students to consider going greek when they are looking at all of their options for campus involvement. I keep it very general. If a student is interested in my own sorority, I still refer her to the actives on campus.

You're right. I attended a smaller school and I'm in a different part of the country. But that doesn't mean that all of my professors love Greek life and throw names at me every time I ask.

I know of students from all over the country who take this approach, at small schools, large schools, public and private. I've heard of people obtaining between 5 and 20 names from just one professor.

Also, I never said it was their "job" to find new members for our organizations. But wouldn't it make sense to ask a person, who works with students every day and knows their personalities and their capabilities, for suggestions about who we might want to recruit into our organizations that stand for high academic performance, generous philanthropic endeavors, and good values?

Besides... doing this hurts... who? You send out a letter, it's free, and at the very worst you don't get a response. Oh no, not that!

Well, what a professor thinks is spiffy and what 18-21 year old members of a chapter think is spiffy may not be the same thing. Plus there are plenty of things professors don't know about their students. It's kinda like the moms who don't know their daughters are slutting it up all over myspace.

On the surface, it might make sense to ask professors for recommendations. However, some students might not appreciate being recommended by a professor for a student organization, particularly a greek organization. Perhaps I am just more mindful of my students and their privacy than others you have encountered are. I wouldn't let anyone send letters to my students unless my students agreed ahead of time that this would be okay. I also would not want to risk appearing to favor one greek organization over another. If I advertise for one, I must do it for all of them.

I never said "ask a professor for a name and then write that person a letter extending them a bid".

Obviously this process is used to tell a PNM about your organization and to get them to attend recruitment events. It's the same thing as if some random person just showed up at an event. At least this way you're contacting a good number of people that you don't know and may never have gotten a chance to talk to. If someone shows up at your recruitment event after reading a letter about an organization that's involved in academics, philanthropy and rituals, and they go there looking for something else (like alcohol and getting laid), then they're incredibly stupid, you'll probably be able to pick them out immediately, and then get rid of them.

^Then what are you talking about? Are you asking professors to hand out flyers? I don't know of any campus that allows professors to just turn over lists of names to organizations, so I really don't get how you are accomplishing this.

and if someone doesn't like the letter, they throw it away. I highly doubt someone would get extremely offended by a Greek letter org. sending them a letter. and if they do, well... I'd hate to see how they react when they get a call from a telemarketer

all you do is ask them, "do you know of anyone in your classes who you would see fit to be in a greek letter org?" ... if they do, they give you their names. i didn't say they have to advertise for you. they just let you know of any good students in their classes.

I would have been incredibly annoyed if I found out my professor referred my name to a sorority. He/she has no idea what I am interested in, or what type of sorority I would want to join (if at all), or if I am already part of a different one.

If your idea works for you, keep going with it. It's just not something I would ever do in my own role, nor is it something I would have appreciated as an undergraduate.

Edited to add:

See fit? Wow...I don't think ANY faculty or staff member should make judgements as to which students are "fit" to be greek.

I could explain this all day and you still won't understand. So I'm just going to leave it. If it doesn't work for you, that's fine. It was just a suggestion.

No, I understand you. Perfectly.