Ancient History Recruitment Thread

[monmouthian]

I graduated high school in 1987 and went to college right away. I'm bored, so I thought I'd share my rush story. I started college at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois, home of Pi Beta Phi and Kappa Kappa Gamma. When I visited the campus as a prospective, they made sure that we knew that Monmouth is "the birthplace of the women's fraternity movement" (which may be stretching a little bit) and that Monmouth was one of the first coed colleges in the US. I was really impressed with the history and traditions and really wanted to be a Greek, even though none of my friends from high school were planning on going through rush.

In 1987, Monmouth was on a trimester system (3 terms per year, 3 classes per term). We didn't start until after Labor Day. It was torture to watch my friends go off to University of Illinois and Western and Tulane and still be at home. Some of my friends left a whole month before I did. I was so ready to go when the time came.

I drove myself to college, so I packed my car the night before, and said good-bye to my mom on the porch. We both started crying so I had to leave really quickly. I pulled my car into the first gas station and leaned my head on the steering wheel and bawled like a baby. Some buy passing by asked me if I was okay. I wiped my eyes, said "yes," and got my gas.

After a four hour drive, I got to school. I called my mom from the pay phone in the student center to tell her that I had arrived. She started crying again and then I started crying again, so I hung up quickly and went to my dorm. The Freshman Orientation leaders were on hand to help us move in. I was assigned a suite with a sophomore student, so I had my own room. (Monmouth had a lot of one person rooms in 1987. The school had dorm capacity for around 1800 students and only had around 700.)

I had chosen McMichael Hall to live in because it had big rooms with sinks in the room. It also had wide halls and a big central staircase. It was the closest dorm to the cafeteria and to the academic buildings. During freshman orientation, I learned from other students that McMike was the "Kappa Delta dorm." None of the sororities at MC are housed, but each of them tended to congregate in one dorm or the other. Women could live in any dorm they chose, and did, but all of the dorms open to freshmen had a reputation for being dominated by a single group. McMike was "the KD dorm." Grier -- a very pretty older dorm that had great wallpaper, and a beautiful lounge, but smaller rooms and narrow halls -- was the "Kappa dorm." Liedman -- the newest women's dorm -- was "the Pi Phi dorm."

The next day, I met my freshman seminar teacher and our freshman orientation leader. Both of our orientation leaders were Pi Phis. There were 12 students in our orientation group, and they showed us around campus, and talked to us about campus life. They took us to a inter-squad football game. They took us to the President's backyard BBQ. I liked both of them very much. All my crying was quickly forgotten. I was thrilled to have the freedom that comes with being a college freshman. One of the guys in my group and I stayed out until 3 am talking almost every night. (Not a future boyfriend. He was gay.)

There were 4 girls in my orientation group and I made very good friends with another girl from St. Louis. I got along with the other girls two, though. One was a beautiful volleyball player. The other was a very pretty blonde who had been "the Pork Queen of my whole county." We were all signed up for Rush, which would be the very first week of school.

We heard a ton of gossip about the sororities during orientation week. Kappa Kappa Gammas were all supposed to be rich and pretty and blonde and fake. Pi Phis were all supposed to fun loving, party girls. KD's were the smart ones.

Edit: Looking back on this, now, I can tell you these stereotypes are the dumbest things ever. Every single one of those groups had women in them who met the stereotypes. They all had smart girls, jocks, rich girls, blonde girls, fake girls, party girls, whatever. By the time I graduated I had good friends in every sorority. Looking back, I can tell you that I am absolutely sure that I would have been happy wherever I ended up.

Without knowing anything about them at all, I really wanted to be a Kappa or Pi Phi because of the history and the tradition. I can't believe I knew so little about what the hell I was doing. I was one of the girls who wanted letters and didn't know what it was all about. I was such a stupid freshman.

Next up: Rush parties, punch, and decisions, oh, my!