AGDee's Retro aka How NOT to do recruitment

[AGDee]

Background: I was totally clueless. Totally. One of my best friends from high school was a boy named Michael who was the ex-boyfriend of a friend of mine (Nancy). After my friend cheated on him, I was very angry with her and remained close to him. He was a year older than me and when he graduated, he went to Eastern Michigan University (Go Hurons! ((Once a Huron, Always a Huron))). He had a new gf from my high school class and I drove her up to EMU a couple times to visit him. In the process, I fell in love with his roommate, who took me to my prom and we ended up in a long distance relationship.

First Semester Freshman Year: The year was 1983. There I was, a brand new freshman at EMU, entering the world of college, scared to DEATH, except for the fact that I had Rich (bf) and Michael (bff) there to guide me. During my first semester, I was getting my feet wet on campus. I'd been invited to join the University Ambassador's Society, an organization for students with good grades and leadership potential (based on high school info) who worked to help recruit new students by doing phone calls and tours and stuff like that. Michael was also invited to join as was Nancy. Pretty much, Michael, Rich, Nancy and I hung out all the time. We ate all of our meals together, partied together, etc.. even though Nancy and Michael were just friends. Through the Ambassador's Society, we met a TON of greeks. Michael and Rich both went through fraternity rush that first semester and ended up pledging TKE. When I was talking to my parents one day, I mentioned that and my dad told me that he is a TKE. I had no idea until that day. The greeks who were part of the Ambassador's Society were really amazing leaders. Several of them were seniors who were also on student government and stuff. Michael and Rich had two female friends who lived on their dorm floor named Karen and Theresa. Karen and Theresa hung out with us a lot too. Karen was really nice but Theresa just always rubbed me the wrong way. They were in one of the four sororities on campus.

So, once Michael and Rich were TKE pledges, I was at the TKE house with them a lot. They were really awesome guys.. campus leaders, preppy types, good grades and, as they wouldn't let you forget.. Ronald Reagan (President at the time) was a brother. Lots of sorority women hung out with the TKEs and they had a little sister group, which I contemplated joining. But, I decided to try out sorority rush instead.

Back then, our rush was pretty frilly (not quite so much as the South, but way more than today!). There were 4 NPC groups on campus and a local. The local sometimes did formal rush and sometimes didn't. Formal rush was held both fall and winter semesters, which was kind of insane.. no.. REALLY insane. I decided to rush winter semester, much to my mother's chagrin, but with my father's blessing "Don't worry, I'll help you pay the dues if you need me to".