Terrible rush rules at IU

[hoosier]

In the past, Indiana's fraternity rush rules were regularly written up in the GLO magazines as "the best system anywhere" or something similar.

Now the shrinking fraternity system has adopted the worst known rush rules, and the decline continues.

The worst known rush rules include:

1 - $10 registration fee (for what?)
2 - Recruitment groups were led by recruitment counselors (we'd like to pledge individuals, not groups)
3 - He was accepted (as a recruitment counselor), and attended four meetings in which he learned what to say and what not to say (why not just be yourself and tell the truth)
4 - The benefits of this year's rush are that it is more formal, contained and easier to track progress (for whom? why? who does "contained" or "more formal" help?)
5 - Each fraternity selected 12 representatives (who benefits from this limit?)
6 - Men who missed formal recruitment but still wish to join can register (why is it necessary to register to join? Is there any other group on campus which forces prospective members to register and pay - in order to even be considered for membership?

There's about 10 other stupid rules in this article, all of which hurt the majority of GLOs. If last years stats are correct, 55 percent of the prospects who participated chose not to pledge or were not asked to pledge. My point is made.

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Indiana Fraternities kick off men's fall recruitment

By Alli Stolper

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Published Monday, September 8, 2003
Updated 01:22AM Monday, September 08, 2003

When Freshman Daniel Martinko met with fraternity brothers, he didn't ask about girls, beer or parties. Instead, Martinko said he asked about the quality of the people who lived in the houses.
"I don't want to live in a house like 'Animal House,'" Martinko said.
This year's Men's Recruitment process was not only for potential members searching for a home in the greek community, but also for the fraternities seeking new members to continue their legacies.
Instead of attending presentations at the chapter houses, this year's information sessions in Ballantine Hall allowed potential members answer this question based on the men, not the physical appearances of their houses. Brian Moak, vice president of recruitment for the Interfraternity Council, said last year's excessive informality prompted the IFC to change the recruitment process.
"The benefits of this year's rush are that it is more formal, contained and easier to track progress. It gives us more factual statistics to learn from," Moak said.
The weekend began Friday afternoon at Dunn Meadow with the registration process. Potential members paid $10 for the recruitment experience, an informational "Greek Life" CD, and a free Pizza Express dinner on Saturday evening.
Over 700 men registered for recruitment this year, a decrease from the 900 who registered last year. Of the 900 who registered, only 45 percent signed with a fraternity.
Each potential fraternity member was assigned to a recruitment group of 40-45 fellow students.
Recruitment groups were led by recruitment counselors wearing red baseball T-shirts with "Men's Recruitment" printed across the chest, hailing from each of the 23 chapters. They are disaffiliated from their chapters for the duration of men's recruitment to ensure impartiality.
Junior Matthew Haft said he applied to be a recruitment counselor online through the IFC Web site. He was accepted, and attended four meetings in which he learned what to say and what not to say.
"We're trying to give the guys a non-biased view," Haft said. "We want to improve the quality of guys who pledge."
After talking briefly with their recruitment counselors, the potential members walked around and talked to the men at each of 23 tables. Music blared in the background and men could purchase pizza at a discount.
Each fraternity selected 12 representatives to attend Friday's event. The limited number of representatives from each chapter helped ensure fairness for the smaller chapters.
Saturday afternoon, the potential members attended informational sessions presented by each chapter in classrooms in Ballantine Hall. During each session, the formally-dressed members introduced themselves, listed famous alumni and stated the length of their chapter's pledgeship. Some, but not all, of the chapters made their no-hazing policies clear. At the end of the session, the men mingled and talked one-on-one.
Mike Friedman, president of Phi Kappa Sigma, also known as the Skulls, said their chapter had a retreat to concentrate on traits they look for in potential members.
"We look for honor, respect and hard workers," Friedman said. "We want focused people who are goal-oriented and well balanced. They should fit in and enjoy themselves."
Men who missed formal recruitment but still wish to join can register at the Indiana Memorial Union activities tower, Room 371.

[33girl]

ummm, this is the way the women have been doing it for forever.

1. I doubt that a $10 entrance fee will keep anyone from participating - that's 3 drinks.

2. Being in a rush group has nothing to do with who you pledge. They don't stay in these groups all through rush...some may go back to 2 houses, some may go back to 30. You don't have to pledge all the people in a rush group.

3. I think you are taking this far too literally - they are just letting them know not to spread rumours, etc. Some guys don't know anything outside their house.

4. It's easier for men who have no clue to meet some of the guys from all the houses. It's easier for the fraternities to check on return rates.

5. The smaller fraternities, of course. They need the extra help on a huge campus like IU.

6. This is to keep ineligible students from wasting the members' time just randomly showing up at parties.

From the sounds of it, this is just an introductory thing and after it's over men's rush goes on as usual. I would wager the low pledge rates were due to rushees targeting houses too narrowly and not getting bids. This is to try and open their eyes to several options and prevent that.

[sugar and spice]

I know lots of schools are going to semi-structured fraternity rush. The University of Minnesota is another system that went to it this year.

[AOII_Luv]

I don't see anything wrong with IFC changing/making some rules for men's recruitment. From what I know and have seen, men's recruitment never was very well put together. The only time I saw any order was at the very beginning when the guys had to go sign up in one of the lawn's and probably visit a table that each house put up with info on their houses. Honestly, $10 is nothing...women who want to go through recruitment pay $40 and we get about 1,500 women each year who sign up to participate.

I think it is great that IFC is doing this for their chapters. I have not yet heard one guy complain the changes.

[USChica06]

I would love a $10 registration fee. USC's high amount (for applying late, yes ) was a reason I didn't do it. I want to say it was somewhere like $85 dollars.

[kddani]

maybe if we had stuff like this at my school fraternities wouldn't be disappearing at such an alarming rate and the numbers would be much more even.

It's long been established that there's so much shadiness that goes on in IFC rush.

and $10? hell, that's nothing. If you can't afford that, you sure as hell shouldn't even be thinking of rushing ANYTHING. 33girl- 3 drinks? in clarion, maybe in some areas/bars- that's easily ONE drink.

[Firehouse]

but the guy's right. Men and women (as you always tell me) are different. Men thrive in a free-for-all system with as few rules as possible. I'll tell you exactly what will stop a fraternity system from declining. One fraternity - ONE - steps up to the plate and says "We're going to pledge every sharp guy, we're going to take everytbody good and we're going to shove our success down the throats of all the weakling rivals who don't have the cojones to stop us." That spurs another, rival fraternity into action. The entire system starts sucking up new members again just to maintain a competitive edge. Competition, ego, male pride...all those things are the keys to successful fraternity system rush.

[AXWhoah]

Ha! $85! At Arizona went I went through recruitment it was $110! But yeah, I agree with all of you, those rules don't seem stupid at all....

[SparkliiQTMTSU]

wow our registration fee was only like $15. these outrageous prices are crazy!!!!

Nichole

[aephi alum]

<hijack>

Our rush registration fee was $0 ... In fact, back in the day, all freshmen and transfer women were considered "registered for rush" by default - only non-transfer upperclasswomen had to explicitly sign up. If you were a freshman/transfer and didn't want to rush, you just didn't show up. Every year our Panhel had to justify why 450-500 women were registered for rush but only 150 or so were invited to round 2...

</hijack>

I actually like the idea of adding some structure to IFC rush. I don't think a highly structured NPC-style rush would fly with men (I think their heads would explode if they had to do bid matching ), but I do like the idea that the men are being encouraged to meet representatives of all the fraternities. With a totally unstructured rush, men often go to only a few fraternities and may completely overlook a fraternity that would have been a perfect fit.

[33girl]

Originally posted by aephi alum
I actually like the idea of adding some structure to IFC rush. I don't think a highly structured NPC-style rush would fly with men (I think their heads would explode if they had to do bid matching ), but I do like the idea that the men are being encouraged to meet representatives of all the fraternities. With a totally unstructured rush, men often go to only a few fraternities and may completely overlook a fraternity that would have been a perfect fit.

Thank you, that's exactly what I meant. Firehouse, I agree that as far as rush as a whole, let it flow free...but I don't think a teeny fee and introductions are going to keep that many guys away. There were guys at my small school who knew nothing but the guys in their house...I can just imagine what it's like at a huge school. If nothing else, they get to meet members of the fraternity that's stereotyped as the nerds/stoners/jocks or whatever and maybe will think twice before applying those stereotypes when they have actually met the people.

[SigmaChiGuy]

Hoosier,

Is the glass half empty, or half full?

I think I can predict your answer: half-empty.

Post something good for a change. 540 posts of nothing but ass.

[sugar and spice]

Originally posted by 33girl
Thank you, that's exactly what I meant. Firehouse, I agree that as far as rush as a whole, let it flow free...but I don't think a teeny fee and introductions are going to keep that many guys away. There were guys at my small school who knew nothing but the guys in their house...I can just imagine what it's like at a huge school. If nothing else, they get to meet members of the fraternity that's stereotyped as the nerds/stoners/jocks or whatever and maybe will think twice before applying those stereotypes when they have actually met the people.

Right. This is nowhere near Panhel-style rush. But it helps IFC run things more smoothly and helps smooth out the playing field a bit: guys who don't have the grades can't rush, each fraternity has at least the CHANCE to meet every guy going through rush, and the rushees can ask their "Rho Chis" any controversial questions they might have instead of ruining their chances with a house by doing the same. It's definitely NOT like Panhel rush -- if a guy doesn't like a house, he doesn't have to go back after the "first round." The only thing it really changes is the first set of parties. After that, it's back to traditional fraternity rush.

[Kevin]

I wouldn't mind implementing a few of those rules on my campus. Recruitment on our campus is kind of nuts... it's a question of who can spend the most amount of money in the shortest amount of time (at least it seems that way sometimes).

We have some limited structure: Each potential must visit every house at least once obtaining a stamp for their yellow card that must accompany their signed bid card at the house that they end up at.

There are a few rules, mostly things like "no alcohol at rush events", members/affiliates of one fraternity are not allowed to provide transportation to potentials, etc. Most of these rules are flagrantly violated all of the time.

Despite the system's imperfections, once you know how to work it, you have success. It just creates an environment where many folks rush one house or another for what I would call the wrong reasons.

I would tend to agree that these Iowa rules are a little excessive but I do think that there's a happy medium between having rules and not having rules.

[Tom Earp]

SigmaChiGuy, totally uncalled for

Just what is needed is a Fee to Rush Greek Organizations. BS!

A structured rush is something that used to be done. It should be done, but not like the Soroitys.

Depending on the size of the School and Fraternitys/Soroitys, it could be set up where there is a first week visitiation to see maybe 2 or 3 Houses a night. If a second week is needed, then another open session.

But remember, this is just as hard on the Greeks as the rushees, so how about a break, fees my ass, where does the money go? Dont the Chapters have a fund for the regulatory Bodies or they get money from the school?

With the high cost of going to college and the fees charged by Greeks what the hell do we need to charge a fee for!

These young people have to want to join a Greek Organization first, or maybe have a freind who talks them into it!

Okay, lets burden them with another cost! I would say screw it, why do I want to pay $$$$$$ to become a Greek! They can kiss my ass!