CU fraternities defy deferred rush rules, go off campus

[hoosier]

Frats plan rush, despite ban

Exposure difficult without use of CU campus facilities

By Elizabeth Mattern Clark, Camera Staff Writer
July 18, 2005

Boulder fraternities used to fill the University of Colorado's Farrand Field each fall with an "open house," drawing hundreds of potential members from their dorm rooms.

Now the groups are scrambling to find an off-campus place, perhaps the Boulder Theater, for the introductory event that leads into rush week.

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Also banned from the campus beginning this summer are fraternity booths at orientation sessions, Greek Week football games and any other fraternity functions.

Insisting on a fall rush, or recruitment period, has cost the off-campus fraternities their affiliation with CU. After a freshman Chi Psi pledge died of alcohol poisoning last fall, university leaders demanded that Greek groups delay their recruitment until the spring or lose all ties to the school.

The banishment from campus offices, fields and, eventually, CU's Web site, will make it tougher for the groups to get the attention of new members, said Ryan Lynch, a student vice president for the Inter-Fraternity Council.

University officials also are planning to send letters to parents of freshmen, encouraging them to keep their teenagers from joining fraternities until their second semester.

Whether the lack of recognition by CU will affect membership "remains to be seen," Lynch said. "It just means we have to push harder to get the information out."

Fraternities say they aren't budging from their regular fall rush, Sept. 11-17.

"We're working really hard to overcome the situation the university has put us in," said Austin Rial, president of the Theta Xi house in Boulder. "But most of the exposure we get is in the fall anyway, come rush time, by wearing our shirts and talking to kids in class and word-of-mouth."

Sororities, which agreed to the spring rush and are allowed to use campus spaces, have been setting up tables at orientation sessions. They reported that most freshmen stopping to talk to them this summer aren't even women — but men interested in joining fraternities, Lynch said.

"We're optimistic, considering that response," he said. "It shows the interest is still there."

Brandon Ricks, a freshman from Colorado Springs who attended orientation last week, said he didn't hear anything about fraternities and wouldn't be interested anyway.

"If it wasn't so expensive, I'd think about it," he said.

The Inter-Fraternity Council has moved out of the campus Greek Affairs Office and into the Theta Xi house. The campus office now represents sororities only.

And CU officials have removed some of their Web references to fraternities, though the main site for Boulder chapters and rush schedules — www.coloradogreeks.com — was still linked Friday from the school's Greek Affairs Office page.

Ron Stump, vice chancellor for student affairs at CU, said the link was an oversight and will be removed.

University officials say the Greek groups need to give freshmen more time to adjust to college life before introducing the social pressures of joining a house. Chapter leaders say deferring their recruitment would cut their fee-paying memberships and make it more difficult to develop future leaders.

[33girl]

Originally posted by hoosier
Sororities, which agreed to the spring rush and are allowed to use campus spaces, have been setting up tables at orientation sessions. They reported that most freshmen stopping to talk to them this summer aren't even women — but men interested in joining fraternities, Lynch said.

"We're optimistic, considering that response," he said. "It shows the interest is still there."

Does anyone know if the sororities are allowed to give any sort of info about fraternity rush and such?

[AGDee]

I'm also wondering if the University is going to take issue with the sororities having events with the fraternities since they aren't recognizing the fraternities, but they are recognizing the sororities. I do realize that the University can't really say who they can socialize with, but they really can't make them defer recruitment either. Didn't another public university lose a battle like this when the fraternities sued over the right of Freedom of Association?

[Firehouse]

AGDee, you are absolutely right. This is as close to perfect a definition of academic bs as it is possible to imagine. The University of Colorado's football program has been in the news for using hookers as recruiters...but the academic administrators can't or won't do anything about that. Their liberal community has been nationally embarrassed by rogue lunatic and pretend "professor" Ward Churchill - chairman of the ethnic studies department - who tells national audiences that the 9-11 victims are "little Eichmans"....but the politically correct administrators are terrified to do anything about that. So, what DO they do? In their impotent frustration and frantic obsession to attack someone, they choose the soft target - like Al Qaeda car bombing a day care center - and go after the most traditional campus organizations in the state: college fraternities.
Yes, AGDee, you are right: the University has no right to do what they are doing. It flies in the face of the hard-fought victory inherent in the 1996 Freedom of Association Act. I hope - I pray - that the chapters are being advised by NIC attornies to document actual financial damages.

[DeltAlum]

Just to keep the record straight:

The Athletic Director at Colorado during those incidents is gone along with some other members of the Athletic Department. Officially, I think he resigned, but in reality, he was fired. The football coach survived, which is amazing.

The Chancellor is also gone as I recall. I think the President is also gone (I think former US Senator Hank Brown, a Delt from C.U. is the Interim President -- he is former President at the University of Northern Colorado, and was very supportive of the Greek System there)

And, let's be honest, a pledge is dead. This can't be entirely laid at the feet of the administration.

It's probably fair to say that they may be using that to deflect attention from the other problems, but the Greek System in Boulder has enough of its own to go around.

[Firehouse]

Thanks for the update. Didn't realize that they have cleaned house to the extent that they have; perhaps the administrator who tried to impose deferred rush is gone too.
I'm aware that a Chi Psi pledge died from alcohol poisoning. Young people often do foolish things, and in a population of that size, once in awhile there is going to be tragedy. Blaming college fraternities is an easy target, and an attack that resonates in an academic culture eager to make Ward Churchill chairman of a department. When someone is killed by a drunk driver, no one realistically expects the drinking age to be raised to 70 and the speed limit lowered to 21. I have never liked bullies, and mid-level college administrators tend to try to bully the kids.
I'll concede two points to you: first, I do think that there is a different drinking culture in college today, different than when we were in school. back in the day, it was considered a virtue to be able to hold your liquor. Today, the trend in some cases seems to be to try to get drunk as quickly as possible.
Second. I think Colorado may be something like Florida (where I am) in that both states are wide open, wild and wooly, almost anything goes. I remember asking a friend of mine who had visited a great Greekcampus in the heartland (Kansas I think). I asked him how our chapter would compare on that campus. he thought about it for a moment and said, "If we were magically transported overnight and set down in the middle of that campus, two thinks would happen probably in the course of one week. First, we would absolutely dominate every competitive phase of fraternity life: sports, rush, sororities, everything. Our aggressiveness would frighten them. The second thing that would happen that week is that the university would kick us off campus and tell us never to return."
Deltalum, I can remember not too many years ago when your great chapter at Florida told your national office to buzz off (some issue to do with hazing), and the entire membership walked out. That was well over 100 men. I don't remember all the details but it was a big deal becasue the Delts were so strong. I think the members came back, but on their own terms or at least with some sort of compromise, and the Delts contirue to be great at Florida. My point is that Florida's not really a "southern" state like Alabama or Mississippi any more than Colorado is really a "heartland" state like Kansas or Nebraska. That reality presents an entirely different set of problems to the typical chapter advisor at those schools.

[TSteven]

Originally posted by 33girl
Does anyone know if the sororities are allowed to give any sort of info about fraternity rush and such?

Good question.

Frankly, I don't know why the sororities would not be able to do so. Unless there is a specific NPC rule that states that discussion during orientation sessions can *only* be about NPC recruitment. Like what if someone came up to ask about NPHC intake or perhaps asked about any other organization *associated* with campus life, but not necessarily an 'official' campus recognized organization. I venture to guess that they should be able to discuss these as well.

In the meantime, the IFC chapters should pool the resources of all the chapters and buy print ads in the campus paper promoting IFC rush. As well as issue press releases and submit letters to the editor discussing IFC rush. Free *good* publicity can go a long way.

[Firehouse]

And...have someone take a look at the letter that the University sent out to parents "warning" them to keep their sons from joining fraternities.

[Tom Earp]

Print it and Put a Link If Possible!

WOW, this is Deep DooDoo Stuff!

A Supplied Via either State or Federal $$s is doing This?

Will be interesting "IF" The Greeks so want to fight it as a Class Action as It Should Be.

Descremination? Maybe The Friggen ACLU will Step In? Yeow Right!

[TSteven]

Originally posted by Firehouse
And...have someone take a look at the letter that the University sent out to parents "warning" them to keep their sons from joining fraternities.

I sure hope that some IFC lawyers on top of this.

Depending on the wording, the letter may actually *help* get the word out that there are fraternities having rush in the fall. Now wouldn't that be a hoot!

[33girl]

Originally posted by TSteven
I sure hope that some IFC lawyers on top of this.

Depending on the wording, the letter may actually *help* get the word out that there are fraternities having rush in the fall. Now wouldn't that be a hoot!

Princeton did something like this and it completely backfired - I think the sororities got their largest pledge classes ever.

[DeltAlum]

Originally posted by 33girl
Princeton did something like this and it completely backfired - I think the sororities got their largest pledge classes ever.

I can easily see something like that happening at Colorado.

[dznat187]

why not just have defered rush? the sororities are doing it....why not the guys too? we all have deferred rush and we are fine with it. we recruit sops and up in the fall and can take freshman in the spring. it works nicely for us all.

[mmcat]

what a mess!
you would think they would organize ways for solutions versus just shoveling more stuff...
it's obvious there have been problems. but this makes no sense.

[Firehouse]

Posted by dznat187...
"Why not just have defered rush? the sororities are doing it....why not the guys too? we all have deferred rush and we are fine with it. we recruit sops and up in the fall and can take freshman in the spring. it works nicely for us all."


Dear Dznat187:
Part of the answer lies in the fact that men are very competitive by nature. Men and women do not think at all alike when it comes to rush. Women's rush is highly controlled and structured. Men's rush has few rules and success often depends on hustle. Fraternities can pledge as many or as few men as they want, and the chapters can grow as large as they want. It's a free enterprise system in which any individual fraternity is free to win, or to fail.
In that atmosphere of free competition and free enterprise, it's infuriating to have an administrator make an arbitrary decision which, one suspects, is based on a their desire to preen for the camera and use fraternities as scapegoats.
Set aside the probability that the university's decision is illegal. Apparently, their decision applies to no other student organizations. Freshmen can still play varsity sports, can still join the various religious and political organizations, and yes, even social organizations. They're told they can participate in anything as freshmen, they just can't join an IFC fraternity.
Why don't the sororities just be like the men? Why can't a sorority be as large and as dominating as they want? Why can't they pledge as many girls as they want? The answer is: because they don't want to be in that environment. Men instinctively establish heirachy, within each group, and among the fraternities themselves. Women instinctively establish cooperation in order to maintain stability and security.
So..."why not just have deferred rush?" Because if I was at Colorado I'd want my fraternity to dominate, and that means I'd want to pledge as many top men as I could as quickly as possible.
The very fact that I want to do that is reason enough.