Quote:
Originally posted by 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.
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Yes, you've said it near-perfectly.
The master guru of women's college soccer, Anson Dorrance at UNC (think about 18 NCAA titles in 22 yrs.), often writes that one of his challenges is getting the women to compete against team mates - they want to be friends, not competitors. He makes them compete in practices/drills, has assts. keep records of the winners/losers, and posts the results. Similarly, the sororities have an elaborate system, mostly imposed from above, that hides the competitiveness (and mostly insures that the best chapters are never challenged by lessers.)
Among fraternities, there's free enterprise and hustle, and the weeniest chapter can bust their butts and pledge a large bunch. If they can do it two or three years in a row, they become a campus powerhouse.
I suspect that the Univ. has fully gotten the attention of the Colorado fraternity men (and their advisors and natls.), and will do well this fall.
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