No footbal, soccer, or baseball players allowed at UR

[hoosier]

Background
About 20 percent of the University of Rochester's 4,400 undergraduates are in one of the campus' 29 recognized fraternities or sororities. UR is in the midst of evaluating its Greek system; specific recommendations are due later this month from a committee looking at the system.



UR's new frat policy decried
As of this spring, freshmen on varsity teams not allowed to rush.

Matthew Daneman
Staff writer


(April 18, 2005) — An experimental policy at the University of Rochester that limits who can join a fraternity has some students and alumni crying foul.
As of this spring, freshmen on the varsity soccer, football and baseball teams are prohibited from seeking to join a fraternity, or "rushing."

The new rule — which applies only to men seeking to join fraternities and not to women rushing sororities — affects maybe 50 students, said Dean of The College William Scott Green. Baseball, soccer and football have proven to be problem areas in conjunction with rushing, UR says.

"Empirical evidence shows that in these sports, pledging in the freshman year has harmful effects on students' educational progress and on the development of a team focus," UR said in a statement.

A number of alumni argue that the policy smacks of discrimination and is a body blow to fraternities by cutting down on their possible membership.
"Part of a liberal arts education is that you are well-rounded in many different ways," said Howard Rudzinsky of Massachusetts, a 1980 alumnus who pledged Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. "Fraternity life isn't for everyone, that's clear. Neither are varsity athletics. But to say you can do one and exclude another I think is antithetical to a liberal arts experience."

According to Rudzinsky and two other DKE alums, alumni Internet message boards have been abuzz with angry postings from graduates.
"These new restrictions are a big hit to the Greek community," said Nick Delahanty, a senior from Queens and a member of Delta Upsilon fraternity.

"The student fraternity leadership is upset, and we have tried to appeal the decision. It has hurt recruitment, especially for those fraternities that draw heavily on various sports teams."

Across higher education, there's no universal rule of thumb on who can rush when. Restrictions on outside activities usually seem to be a head coach's decision rather than a uniform policy of an institution that affects all sports at a college, said Dick McKaig, executive director of Indiana University's Center for the Study of the College Fraternity.

UR's soccer, baseball and football coaches each came up with the idea independently, Green said, and the policy got both administrative and board of trustees' approval.

Since sophomores can rush a fraternity in the fall semester, Green said, the policy amounts to a one-semester delay.
UR does not allow first-semester freshmen to take more than three credit hours above the typical four courses to prevent "overload."

The new fraternity policy is analogous to that, Green said: "This is about overload. This is not an attack on fraternities."
UR is leaning toward trying the rushing policy for a couple of years and seeing what impact it has on the teams, Green said.

[33girl]

Why would the administration even get involved in this? Why not let the coaches be the bad guys? It's been done at other schools.

I mean, as far as I know the University of Rochester isn't some huge sports powerhouse.

[mmcat]

how messed up is that?

[AGDLynn]

Sounds like discrimination on various levels..why else ban freshMEN not freshWOMEN. According to the UR website, there are 10 sports each.

Does this mean that UR freshWOMEN are smarter, more devoted to their studies than freshMEN?

Many states have rules requiring that all freshpersons must live on campus their first year.

50 isn't a large number but shouldn't matter.. if it were 1500.

What other areas will this and other schools will ban only a certain segment of the population and not think it is discrimination??

[LightBulb]

Originally posted by AGDLynn
50 isn't a large number but shouldn't matter.. if it were 1500.

An estimate... 4,400 undergrads. Approximately 2,200 would be male. 20% (440) are in fraternities. 50 out of 440... that's like 11.4% of potentials.

PS - Good point about the FreshWOMEN

[DolphinChicaDDD]

I can see the coaches putting a stop to it. At schools/teams that I know of, many of the coaches have an unoffical "you do not do ANYTHING else during your season" sometimes they make it offical and announce to the whole team that you are not allowed to join a sorority/fraternity, play another sports, or join clubs that are going to require a lot of time. My coach did the same thing, so I had to be shady and not tell anyone because my sport went all 3 seasons.

But the administration stepping in is on a whole nother level.

What makes no sense, is the offical season for football and soccer is fall. Typically teams will have a spring season, but its without an offical coach and it doesn't count for much except to help the players develop. So why prevent those players from pledging in the spring?

[Firehouse]

If the fraternities want to make an issue of it in an arena where they can get some traction and win, this is really an NCAA question with Title IX implications. Sounds like they're trying to convince the administration not to act in an unfair and arbitrary way. If they can't win through presuasion, they sure can raise a fuss by bringing the NCAA into it.

[BSUPhiSig'92]

Originally posted by DolphinChicaDDD

What makes no sense, is the offical season for football and soccer is fall. Typically teams will have a spring season, but its without an offical coach and it doesn't count for much except to help the players develop. So why prevent those players from pledging in the spring?

I'm willing to bet it's designed to prevent athletes from pledging at all. Most coaches have the attitude that "your team is your fraternity", and I have known many student athletes have their coaches discourage them from participating in any other activities including things like student government or campus activities board. I have seen many non-scholarship student athletes quit their team because of the amount of flak they get from their coaches/teammates about participating in other groups.