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Terminology and Environment
Part of the discrepancy in using the word "rush" depends on how much of a Greek system is at your school, I think. At my school we have virtually no Greek organizations (with, as far as I know, absolutely no frat/soror houses) and so we don't have the connotations -- positive or negative -- other schools may have. We use the term "Rush" mostly because it's easier to say than "Recruitment Activities", and no one has a problem with it. I can understand how chapters at a school with a larger Greek system might want to avoid this terminology, because it carries connotations of hazing -- but these connotations will vary strongly from campus to campus. I don't think being hazed ever occurred to any of our PMs....
As for "pledge", it's pretty clear to me why it isn't appropriate. A pledge is someone who is NOT a member -- someone who is basically begging to join. Our newbies are PROSPECTIVE members -- insinuating that they will become members, and therefore are equals, not peons.
What do y'all think?
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