[FuzzieAlum]

Kateshort, you're right on. We know - but just the stereotypes - until we get up-close, first-hand experience. And depending on where you go, that experience may come too late.

Before college, of course I had heard of fraternities and sororities. And I "knew" they were for rich, popular types of girls, snobs and sluts and dumb blondes. That wasn't exactly an incentive for me.

When I started visiting schools as a senior, and my best friend started getting excited about rush, I changed my mind to some extent. OK, sorority girls were nice people and not snobby, but they still weren't "like me." I wasn't homecoming queen or rich, or even a cheerleader like my best friend - I wouldn't fit in.

No, none of the schools I applied to sent me rush info - although Greek orgs were visible in the glossy pamphlets. At the school I ended up at, I got no info on rush, period. Then that fall I started meeting Greek women, like my wonderful RA, and my friends who were planning to rush, and that got me interested. Luckily for me, formal rush was second semester, and anyway upperclassmen did get bids. But "luck" is the key - what if rush had been before classes? How would I have known I wanted Greek life, since, to my knowledge, I didn't know well a single GLO member?

For GLOs to maintain numbers and continue to exist, we must rush more than just those women steeped in Greek life from an early age. And if we don't want to be vilified or mocked in the forum of public opinion, we need to inform the general public that GLOs are not all Animal House and Sorority Life. You might not care if first-generation Sally from that small town goes Greek - but what about when she grows up to be university president? You had better hope she thinks well of the Greek system when the next Greek scandal goes down on campus, or she'll start closing your system down.