Deferred Rush . . . Is it legal?
 

I was wondering, is an administration forcing deferred Rush legal? Obviously working through NPC/IFC removes the onus for them, but doesn't deferred Rush violate Freedom of Association Rights? A great test case would be an incoming Freshman that wants to join in the first semester, especially given that he/she can join any other organization on campus!

[This message has been edited by James (edited July 05, 2001).]

Yes, you are correct. I've been told that Congress passed a law in 1998 as a response to just this sort of abuse by bureaucrats. I've been advised that an attempt to impose delayed or deferred rush at a public university can be challenged under the law. It may or may not apply to private institutions. There are details on the GREEKPAGES website, or your national office can give you copies.

Probably not legal, but I am still in favor of it.

A Greek organization is NOT like any other org on campus. You're not going to live 24/7 with the other members of the ski club or College Republicans. I've seen too many people get into something that was more than they could handle first sememester, and depledge or terminate because they weren't ready for it. Plus, I would rather know whether someone can handle the college pressures of grades and being away from home before I invest my time and my organization's time in training them for membership, only to have them flunk out and never hear from them again.

Plus, I am very glad I got to have some time in the dorm and make non-Greek friends before I joined my sorority. I think getting involved later and having friends outside your Greek org prevents senior burnout later.

I'm also an ardent supporter of Deferred (Spring) Rush. Primarily for the above reasons (grades, having non-Greek friends, the committment, preventing senior burnout), it's way too much of a committment (or should be) to do before classes even start, or just a few weeks after school starts.

I go to a school with Spring Rush, and it probably doesn't hurt our numbers, since the girls who are the most interested in the fall, for the most part, remain interested until Spring and are some of our most committed, enthusiastic members. I go to a private school, so I don't know if it's legal for a state school to force Deferred Rush.

[This message has been edited by AlphaChiGirl (edited July 08, 2001).]

To: 33Girl and AlphaChiGirl. I respect your views, and you make very good points. However, I note that you are both in sororities, and sororities traditionally do not pledge large classes in the spring. Your membership intake is structured toward taking one class per year, usually in formal rush. We fraternities, especially those of us with residential houses to support, tend to pledge substantial classes in the fall term and then again in the spring. A dictate to eliminate freshman rush in the fall amounts to a major loss of membership and income for us. We might maintain a chapter of 150 men by pledging 30 in the fall and 20 in the spring. Realistically, we probably won't pledge 50 at one time in the spring if we get none in the fall. On campus, freshmen can be on athletic teams, and participate in other demanding extracurricular activities. The singling out of Greeks is wrong, and there are those who would say it smacks of a political agenda. There are university administrators who do not appreciate or value what fraternities and their alumni bring to the table. I'm tol that some of the problems fraternities are experiencing today are due to the lack of organized fraternity alumni establishing relationships with their universities. It is (now) against Federal law to punish any student for being a member of a Greek organization, or to punish the organization for pursuing their right to recruit and assemble freely. It is a new law, and as far as I've been told nobody has sued yet.

Seminole Pike,
That wasn't my experience at all. I went to a state school in PA (population around 6,000). We had fairly equal size classes in the fall (informal - mainly sophomores) and spring (formal - second semester freshmen). We also had none of the (for lack of a better term) prejudice against older students that I've seen people talk about on here - people pledging as juniors was very commonplace.

But then again - I didn't have a humoungous house to support (our sorority houses held 12-14 except for ZTA). If I had, I might feel differently. On the other side of the coin, if your house is too big to support with sophomores, juniors, and seniors, perhaps your house is too big, period.

I think the key to maintaining house capacity is to make sure the pledges are allowed to move in the semester after they are initiated. We had problems on and off because the school kept switching between semester and year contracts for the dorms.

By Brother is indeed right: the "Livingston" ammendment to the Higher Education Act can be found at the link below. It precludes schools that accpet federal funding from anyh infringements on association rights. Practically, it means that your chapter would have to be sanctioned for VIOLATING the policy before seeking relief - however, I have found that raising the issue with university General Counsel to be pretty effective.

The ladies make good points; however, we cerainly have more than enough examples of chapters that take first semester freshmen and their grades do not suffer, but are indedd above the rest of their classmates on average.
http://www.ed.gov/legislation/HEA/sec101B.html


Brad

FSU threatened deferred Recruitment last year (applicable to Freshmen only) and there was a big uproar. They used this as leverage to institute their new Greek Life Policy.

Refer to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fraternalnews/message/62

Barbara

Per what I've been told, there were follow-up discussions at FSU after the imposition of the policy you refer to in your link. Now, I'm told that policy too has been set aside. Discussions took place variously between the fraternity presidents, the Greek Life staff, and higher university officials. The fraternities and their alumni objected strongly to the program, but everyone agreed that no one in the administration was trying to hurt the fraternities. The Greek Life people are very supportive of the system, as are the University's President and Vice President. the bottom line is that the program you refer to has been shelved. But everyone is trying to find better ways to eliminate problems within the system.

Since greeks were at Cal Poly, we've had Formal rush during the Fall. Because of all the uproar about greeks, and our Administration pretty much hating greeks, we went to deferred rush last year. It was aweful for all houses, both fraternities and sororities. We all caused such an uproar over it, that they reinstated Fall Formal rush. They tried it, saw our numbers fall, and heard our Alumni screaming...luckily, for our small greek system, we are back to Fall rush...it has worked for us, maybe not for others, but I'm glad we have it back.

Local - I would call that a much less than watertight "loophole." Why? Because the university would have to PROVE in court that deferred rush would indeed PREVENT those things AT THE UNIVERSITY IN QUESTION.

very difficult to pull off.

Brad