Wow...I must say, these "walk outs" seem kind of impressive! Thinking back to rush on my campus...all the houses on our campus greeted you with a peppy, cheery song for the first round of rush. If there was a staircase at the front door (as my hosue did), the girls were lined up on that, all smiles. There were some unique songs at each house (I do not miss singing "boom boom boom boom....I wanna be an Alpha Chi!"
) but mainly people clapped and sang the greek alphabet song, as a sign of greek unity across campus. The PNMs lined up at the door, single file, and the sisters (lifetime members!) were would walk up one by one and pick the next girl in line.
For the first round, rush generally took place downstairs, but each house did a tour of both the downstairs and upstairs. You saw a variety of sisters rooms, they were all decorated nicely. This was the best part of rush, IMO. The sorority houses on the Syracuse campus are all beautiful, and it's just a great experience to actually get to see the insides of these old homes! Also, I think it's important to do room tours, because I think seeing how every sorority truly lives and conducts itself, could help to dispel certain stereotypes rushees may have prior to starting rush/recruitment. I do remember having to hide clocks, not being able to wear watches, turning off phone ringers, lowering answering machines, but as for computers? Those pretty much had to be at the very least signed off of the internet. And stereos were out, too...pretty much everyone has music playing (softly) to set the "mood" for their room.
For the second round, which was skit round when I rushed (I believe it is now "philanthropy night" at my alma mater) everything was done downstairs. Then for pref round, everything was done downstairs, except each house did a sort of "one on one" with a sister you had sort of clicked with, upstairs, in different bedrooms.
I have to say, I actually enjoyed rush. Maybe I was a masochist, or I just love smiling until my cheeks hurt, but it was so exciting to see all those young women, so eager to meet you, so happy to finally be starting a new phase of their college career. And so much fun to finally meet the newest faces of your chapter!!!
Ahhh, the things you miss when you're out in the "real world"!!!
