Maybe I'm too skeptical, but I can't help wondering about the U. of Colorado fraternities' stated position. For example, a couple of days ago the
Daily Princetonian had an article about that school's discussions about possibly having deferred rush:
. . . Kerry Willoughby '05, a Pi Beta Phi member and former president of Princeton's Panhellenic Council, suggested late last month moving rush to November as a compromise.
When told about it, [Dean] Deignan welcomed the idea.
But some students and administrators doubted that Greek organizations would delay rush. Rush is timed, they said, to capitalize on freshmen's social inexperience.
The former fraternity president agreed that the goal of holding it early in the term is to attract as many freshmen as possible.
"I really enjoyed my fraternity experience. But in leadership positions, you formulate strategies where you want to get to kids early and influence their opinions because you want to build your organization," he said. "You could say it's manipulative."
Yes, I know that Colorado and Princeton are somewhat different
, but I can't help thinking there's a lot of truth -- applicable to both schools -- in the quote about "freshmen's social inexperience" and early rush being "manipulative."
Princeton article is at:
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/arc...ws/12888.shtml