Rush

[Jen]

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[irishpipes]

It was awesome, and now it isn't.

[FSUZeta]

at florida state, we did yard songs. all the sorority houses have nice front lawns, and members practice the whole week before recruitment, coming out of the house, singing and dancing to greet the rushees.

my house has double front doors, and french doors leading from the living room and the housemothers apartment and we would exit the house thru all those doors singing and criss-crossing to our spot on the lawn where we would continue the song and dance to the end. then the rushees were welcomed and invited to come up the steps to our sidewalk and each member would take a rushee as her guest and usher her into the house.

think those old busby berkley movie musicals and you had fl. state rush back in the day, but i loved it and it was quite impressive to see as a rushee and to accomplish as a sister.

[LampLady]

I was an active at Pitt back in the early 1970's. Rush in the Northeast is very different than that practiced in the South and Midwest, even today. There was very little reliance on recommendation letters and very few legacies. Rush for us consisted of a first round of open houses to which every rushee was invited, a 2nd round of invitational theme parties, and a final pref. These parties were all several weeks apart and, during the interim time, we had what were called chat dates with the rushees. Each member would contact each rushee that was still on their active rush list and set up a time to meet individually with her for about a half hour somewhere on campus. So by the time that invitational or bid lists were compiled, most of the members knew the rushees personally...at least more than just seeing them at a large party.

Advantages were that girls seemed to really know with which group she really belonged by the end of rush. We had very few women depledge. It also eliminated the somewhat superficial nature of rush parties. We also did not seem to spend the tremendous amount of money on rush that goes on today.
We did not have the massive cuts dictated by the new release system. This was a benefit for the rushees and the larger groups on campus, but probably detrimental to the smaller groups that struggled to recruit members.

Disadvantages were that rush just seemed to go on and on. It lasted from September, right after school started, to the end of November. We had an upperclass rush first, followed by Freshman rush. Initiation did not happen until 2nd semester for Freshmen and none of them could live in the sorority suite until Sophomore or Junior year.

There are pros and cons to both systems, as you can imagine. Thanks for asking!

[Ocalagirl]

I guess this kind of system is what people think about when they hear someone is rushing, because I always get asked "Well what sorority are you rushing for?" Then I have to explain I am going to all of them at least for the first day and not rushing just one individual group.

[carnation]

Auburn rush back in the day lasted several days. It was full of frills--the skits, usually based on a Broadway musical or well known story (Alice in KappaLand) were well-rehearsed with incredible scenery. We did Showboat my senior year and had this gorgeous backdrop; the story took place on the stage on the boat. The rushees walked into the chapter room on a dock we'd built and the room was darkened because it was supposed to be nighttime so we also had recordings of crickets under the dock. I was a dancer and had a very tiny costume!

Pref parties were also extremely elaborate and very expensive to put on. At AU, the sororities gave unreal favors--we gave small sterling bowls with an arrow on them and the Chi Os were each required to go home over the summer and sew 2 huge owls each. Hehe, my Chi O roommates were furious about that!

Rushes at Arkansas and Mississippi State were about the same..expensive, gorgeous, took forever to prepare for.

I will agree that one thing that the new release figures have done is make rush fairer for the medium and smaller groups. Back then, quota would be set after first or second parties- meaning that quota was huge and the traditionally bigger groups would rack up with all the sought-after girls and the other groups rarely took quota. Many groups would fold. Also, many rushees got hurt at the end because the big cuts came before prefs. Of course, now they get hurt way early...

[dvs-dz]

Rush with frills - what fun, what a nightmare.

I do calligraphy, so I was the nametag/invitation queen. We had rush retreats, endless skit practices (yep, we stole a lot of Broadway tunes - we were doing "A Chorus Line" when I graduated), matching outfits, assigning girls to obtain ivy (hey lady, want your ivy cleared?) to put on trellises and wishing well for our pref. Our best skit was "Rainbow Connection", with songs only about rainbows (and our version of Kermit the turtle).

And Carnation's last paragraph above is very accurate.

[susan314]

I've experienced both sides - went through Rush as a freshman in 1992, when it was still rush and still had frills. By the time I graduated, the frills were starting to disappear and things were transitioning to "recruitment" vs "rush."

When I rushed, we all sang the guests in and out of the house. (Though we couldn't cross the threshold of the doorway - I think they stopped letting them go out into the yard at my school in the late 80s.) It drove the neighbors nuts, but I guess they should have known what they were getting into renting a house next to or across from a sorority house. Besides, it was only once a year in the Fall.

My sophomore year, we had an awesome rainforest theme for Phase B. It was quite stunning and impressive - we had a small waterfall in the corner, live trees, a canopy of vines/greenery over our formal room...I'll have to dig out pictures, because the description doesn't even begin to do it justice. I don't even want to think about how much that level of elaborate decoration cost though.

I'll also agree with the last paragraph of carnation's post.