Rushing for the "Right" Reasons?

[qteasied]

I did a search, and I couldn't find a thread like this one, so forgive me if there are like a million...

I'm interested in joining a multicultural sorority which places alot of emphasis on community/university service and interested in forming a new chapter of a national service fraternity on campus as well. After Panhellenic recruitment and COB's came to an end, I mentioned this to my tour partner, who basically told me that that's ridiculous to spend so much time on a sorority. She also said that she just wants to pledge and be social because she doesn't really care about community service. She went through rush and COB for 2 sororities and got cut. She also just wants to be in a sorority...

Anyway, I was wondering what girls are really rushing for. The girls who get cut...maybe you guys should examine your motives for being in a sorority before you rush. Do you ever wonder that you might have gotten cut because you seem as somebody who would be a "T-Shirt" member instead of a "Backbone" member. I'm not in a sorority (yet, hopefully soon), but I really sat back and came to the realization that the mainstream sororities on my campus weren't really for me so I found a different option.

That's my $1.50(sorry for the long post...)

[KSUViolet06]

Originally posted by qteasied
I did a search, and I couldn't find a thread like this one, so forgive me if there are like a million...

I'm interested in joining a multicultural sorority which places alot of emphasis on community/university service and interested in forming a new chapter of a national service fraternity on campus as well. After Panhellenic recruitment and COB's came to an end, I mentioned this to my tour partner, who basically told me that that's ridiculous to spend so much time on a sorority. She also said that she just wants to pledge and be social because she doesn't really care about community service. She went through rush and COB for 2 sororities and got cut. She also just wants to be in a sorority...

Random, but:

Well, your tour partner got CUT. She had that attitude and look where it got her.

[LovedOne]

Just because a sorority is a social one doesn't mean they don't emphasize community service. If you look into them, each national social sorority has a national philanthropy that they contribute to and do community service projects as well. Our chapter works very hard to raise money for our national philanthropy (the National Kidney Foundation) as well as other causes (last year we donated to the NKF, the Red Cross, the Epilepsy Foundation of Western/Central PA, the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, and the American Diabetes Association), and puts alot of effort into helping out our surrounding community.

[qteasied]

I know this, and service was important to me when I was rushing. The point of my post was to remind PNM's that they should remember that sororities actually do service and other important things than partying and hanging out (which is always fun when you get your work done...)

[LovedOne]

Hmm, yeah rereading your post that is what you were saying. I'm sorry, it was really late when I read it and to me it sounded like you didn't choose a social sorority because there was no service aspect to it. One of my sister's parents gave her a hard time when she decided to join Phi Sig because of the negative view they had of sororities. Her reasoning to them was that she already drank and partied without being in a sorority, she was joining a sorority so she could do the good stuff and help out too

[sugar and spice]

I have to ask, though -- what's wrong with joining for social reasons?

[KSUViolet06]

Originally posted by sugar and spice
I have to ask, though -- what's wrong with joining for social reasons?

It's perfectly okay to rush INITIALLY for social reasons. As long as you understand that service is an equal part of why sororities exist and are willing to participate in service activities. You can't be in a sorority and not be willing to participate in philanthropic things. You wouldn't be getting the full experience.

Admit it, during rush, none of us would take a girl who said, "I'm just looking to have fun, I'm not really interested in all the philanthropies and stuff." It's okay if your initial reason for rushing is social, but you have to be somewhat interested in service or you wouldn't really be contributing to the organization.

I always say that a good sister is one who can stay out late at a mixer on Friday night, but be up at 8 am the next morning to go serve food at a homeless shelter for Service Week.

I really hope this made sense.

[LovedOne]

Originally posted by JocelynC
I always say that a good sister is one who can stay out late at a mixer on Friday night, but be up at 8 am the next morning to go serve food at a homeless shelter for Service Week.

I think it made perfect sense and I completely agree

[PhoenixAzul]

I think that taking a different view of "service vs. social" needs to be taken. Whenever my sisters and I do a service project, we have a great time socializing with ourselves and with the people we're working with. At blood drives we run the sign in table, refreshment stand, keep an eye on donors, and help the Red cross workers any way we can. But it's all very social, we talk, laugh, have a good time. Service CAN be social, it doesn't have to be slave labor or a chore. It's just another opportunity to hang out with your sisters and meet new people and maybe help someone out.

Good luck rushing!

[ADPi Conniebama]

I rushed because I did'nt know anyone at my university except one girl (who "happened to be an ADPi" imagine that).

I rushed for social reasons cause I wanted to get to know people and have a group that I would fit into quickly. The way I got to know them so quickly (and so much fun) was by doing service projects for our philanthropy (ronald mcdonald house). I got to know my sisters so much more when we were doing service projects then when we were at a party.

Just thought I would put my two cents in.

[dphies00]

Anyway, I was wondering what girls are really rushing for.

I work in staffing and recruitment and you'd been surprised how many people work just to work - not thinking about the time and commitment a real career involves.

I wouldn't take a graphic designer on a candidate unless I believed they would represent my company as well as was in their ability - and I encouraged the same standards when I was VPR. Unless a girl could let us know why she wanted to join a sorority and what she wanted out of the experience (specifics!) it was difficult imaging her as a sister during ranking. (And usually her rankings were just average and she might be cut.)

[adpiucf]

Everyone has their own reasons for rushing and organizations have their own reasons for taking different types of members.

Good luck with your goals, but I wouldn't judge someone else's motivations. Everyone has different things that are more important to them than others, and we should respect those differences.

ETA: For example, I didn't join a sorority to make a difference in the world. I joined to meet people and have fun. I did go on to serve on exec, and as an alumna have been an association officer, a collegiate chapter adviser and an international officer. However, that's because the sorority helped shape me as a person. I feel I gave as good as I got, but as an undergrad, my big interest was doing well in school and getting a good job once I graduated-- my extracurriculars were just that-- extracurriculars.

[AchtungBaby80]

Just because a person joins a social sorority (the word here is social) because she wants to meet people, etc., doesn't mean she wouldn't also participate in the sorority's sponsored philanthropic events. Most of those events are a good opportunity to socialize anyway, as someone already pointed out. It would be a different story if the person you're talking about was trying to join a service sorority...

[WVU alpha phi]

I've found that my sorority's main philanthropic event is also pretty social. We sponsor cardiac care, and we used to do the Phi-esta Bowl but stopped doing that 2 years ago because I think a fight happened between the fraternity or something. (I was still in high school then, so I'm not sure of the details.) Anyway, last year we started doing King of Hearts, which is like a male beauty pageant for all the fraternity. Each fraternity submits a boy (or as many as they want - Pike submitted 3 last year) for a fee and then they have to do categories like best pickup line, swimsuit wear, formal wear, and interview. It's really fun because the boys are crazy and a lot of their brothers come out to support them. Last year we also opened it up to the general student population, and I think there were a few non Greeks there. I think our philanthropy was one of the most fun events last year for my sorority cuz all the girls had a great time and so did most of the boys. Plus we raised a bunch of money for cardiac care!

When I was rushing girls this year, I talked about how much fun our philanthropy was. When I rushed last year, I remember girls telling me about their cause, but not really getting into the details of their main philanthropic event.

[sugar and spice]

Originally posted by adpiucf


ETA: For example, I didn't join a sorority to make a difference in the world. I joined to meet people and have fun.

Me too. If you want to save the world, a sorority is not the most direct way to go about it.

Of course, I don't think that we should be pledging girls who obviously aren't going to get into the philanthropic aspect. But we're social sororities for a reason. That is our main purpose -- the philanthropic, academic, athletic, etc. benefits are extra. I don't think there's a point to not pledging someone just because she is clearly looking to make friends and have a good time. The problem comes when that's ALL she wants to do.