How is rush "supposed" to run?

[adduncan]

Hi Folks--
I've met a bunch of you great people over on the "Alumni Involvement" section and I'm just cruising around to see what goes on. Since I'm hoping to be initiated as an alumna, "Rush" isn't the right term for what I'm going for. But I'd like to hear from some people about how rush works at their schools. Mine (from way way way back in the old days) was unusual, and for curiosity's sake, I'd like to get an idea of how it's "supposed" to be done.

My first Rush experience was as a sophomore at Boston University. I don't know if that contributed to my not pledging at the time but there were *many* things at the time that made rush much more stressful than it needed to be.

First, all of the GLOs had recolonized w/in the past 18 months to 2 years of my rush. Back in 1970, when then new president John Silber came on campus, he decided that as part of the plan to "clean up" BU (it wasn't a good school at the time.....) he would revoke every Greek charter, chuck them off campus, and rent out Greek Row (aka, Bay State Road) to GLOs from MIT. It was a good 15 years before GLOs were allowed back at BU, and even to this day they are considered "clubs". No houses on campus, and a limit of 70 members per chapter, including pledges and initiates.

At the time of my rush, everything Greek was just getting back up and running. Looking back, everyone was making a lot of old mistakes as well.
Things have improved since my college days but imagine the following:
1) No Rho Chis. The basic informational meeting was a barbeque and *everyone* wore their letters, before, during, and after rush.
2) 8 sororities, 2 days. And that was the basis of choosing your prefs. The girls would decorate a classroom in one of the buildings to perform their skits and talk about their group and in one day, all rushees walked from room to room for each presentation. This went on for an entire weekend. (one run-through on saturday, one on sunday.)
3) No silence period. I heard later about some very open negotiations among rushees and chapters.
4) No activities in order for girls to get to know each other in a social setting. The presentations I mentioned above were all anyone had to go on in selecting their prefs. This could *not* have been easy on the girls picking new members, either.
5) I've heard of this done differently elsewhere so I'll mention it: Everyone was allowed up to 3 pref parties. Each party lasted all of 20 minutes. Not much time to make such big decisions, for anyone. All of these parties were held in one afternoon.

At that time, I had a hard time imagining joining a group of any kind under these circumstances. It was rushed (no pun intended) and confusing and it built up the pressure beyond where it needed to be.

Fortunately, my alma mater's Greek system has re-evolved and most of the problems I mentioned above have been corrected, so that rush doesn't feel like a cattle call for anyone involved.

So, now that I've ranted a little (!) I'd like to know how did this process happen on other campuses? Part of my dream of being an alumna initiate is to help my school build up its Greek program further.

Adrienne