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If you want a full fleshing out of the problem of non-joining, I'd suggest Bowling Alone. It's a huge book written by a sociologist about how Americans don't have communities like they did in the 1950's. The Grange, the Rotary Club, PTA, everything is down, not just fraternities. It's less pronounced in the South than in the North, but it's a nation-wide problem. People just have other things to do- they have TV, they have movies, they have 36,000 activities and events pressing in at them, and they just don't have time for full-on committments to one or two things.
My HS was the same way- I was on the varsity swimmming team, in the drama club, the chorus, peer leaders, math team, chess club, I was class president....and there were about 30 or 40 other kids who were in all these activities with me. The rest of the students had jobs to go to after school. I was lucky, my job didn't interfere with any of it.
I always make a real effort to rush the guys who come to UMass from my high school. Last year, one of them was a complete loser and not worth the effort. The other two, one of them was driving home every Friday at noon to see his gf, and getting back Monday at 10, and consequently spent all his on-campus time doing schoolwork. The other one refused to "get drawn in" (I love that excuse) and wanted to just get used to the campus before he joined something. I think he transferred away. It's this way with everyone. It's only by the greatest effort that we get any recruits- we talk to so many guys, that just statistically we have to find a few who want to join and are acceptable.
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