I moved into my dorm,
Barton Hall. I love it. It is one of the older dorms on campus. This means it is closer to campus and it has high ceilings and larger rooms. The down side is that we don’t have a cafeteria or lounges. Martha isn’t there because she is staying with her sorority sisters for rush. I’m not really sure where she is since she can’t talk to me. So, I have the double room to myself which is great, but a little lonely. I meet girls on my floor who are there early for rush. Erin and Missy are freshmen like me, and across the hall Laura and Anne are sophomores. Laura and Anne lived together last year and are best friends. They seem nice enough, but they mainly stay in their room with the door closed and they are very quiet. On another floor of my dorm is Jenn, a sophomore who went to my high school. I didn’t know her well since she was a year older than me, but I knew of her since she was very popular and smart, and she had a sister in my grade. She is here early to rush as well as her good friend Shar, another sophomore from my high school who lives in
Illini Tower (IT – a private dorm.) I knew Shar very well in high school. Shar seems to know a lot about the Greek scene and is sure which chapters she is wanting. I am very interested but can’t keep it all straight. We all go together to the orientation that first night at
Foellinger Auditorium. The Rho Chis are all on stage with matching t-shirts and they do a presentation about how rush will work. There are 2,000 girls going through rush – the most ever. They make a big deal about that. They also keep mentioning that this is the largest Greek system in the country. I think they are saying it because they are proud of that, but I admit it is a little unnerving. We will be broken up into rush groups with 4 Rho Chis per group. Each group has an assigned classroom as “home base” for rankings. I don’t remember learning a lot at this meeting, but it was intimidating to see that many rushees together. I realized there was a lot of competition. Our booklet told us to wear whatever we wanted to the orientation because it was not a rush event. The girls I walked over with all wore shorts and t-shirts - nothing fancy. A lot of the girls we saw there were obviously dressed to impress, though. We were given blank nametags that we were to take home and decorate in a way that told people something about ourselves. Ugh. I am terrible at art. I ended up just writing my name in bubble letters and adding a bit of color. It was not a great nametag. I’m not sure what that told people about me!
Erin and Missy from my floor are not in my rush group, and neither are Shar and Jenn. It seems like the groups are somewhat divided by class status. I am pretty sure my group is all freshmen. So, I don't know anyone in the group, but really I didn't expect to at such a big school.
First Stage – Day 1:
My very first rush party! I am wearing a white mini skirt with big white buttons down the side and a red and white striped t-shirt. (Think Zoom! T-shirt, but red and white.) I have white waffle-weave flats on and of course I have full make-up including blue and pink eyeshadow, violet eyeliner and violet mascara. The pink shimmer lip gloss completes the look. I have shoulder-length strawberry blonde hair and it is curled all around from the hot rollers. Oh yes. Welcome to 1987.
It is hot and I am not really sure where we are on campus. We walked here from our classroom in
Lincoln Hall, and I think I am pretty far from my dorm. There are about 50 girls in my rush group. Some are really dressed up and others are wearing shorts or outfits like mine. I don’t know anyone in my group. There are 2 girls standing next to me, Pam and Joelle, and they are obviously friends. They are very dressed up compared to everyone else, and are wearing a lot of makeup and hair spray. They talk constantly about sororities. I assume they know what they are talking about. I find 2 girls, Melissa and Kim, that I hit it off with and we become rush friends.
Roscommon: I cannot believe how beautiful the house is on the inside! The girls are really nice and the party is very laid back. I liked everyone I met, and was very impressed, I think partially because I had never been inside a sorority house before or been to a rush party before! After we left, I heard Pam and Joelle say that this is a Jewish sorority. What?? There are sororities with specific demographics? I am Catholic so this concerns me. I was worried that I could end up somewhere totally wrong for me just because I didn’t know things like that. I really liked everything about that first party, but I misunderstood Pam and Joelle’s comments to be that EVERYONE was Jewish. In retrospect, I understand that this was not true, but I was only 17 and had a very low Greek IQ.
Mayo: I don’t remember anything about this party except the chant, which I could still repeat to this day! I must not have felt a real connection because I didn’t note anything from this party.
Monaghan: This is the first house where the energy was really high. The members were singing and clapping and it was crazy! I loved that! Everyone was very nice and reminded me a lot of my friends from high school. No one was pretentious at all and I had a nice time.
Kilkenny: This is the first chapter that I really felt – wow. Like
Monaghan, there was the initial high-energy singing and clapping. The chapter had a Disney theme with Mickey Mouse ear shaped name tags. I liked the 2 girls who talked to me. One of them liked to sing, too, and they talked to me about all of the singing opportunities in Greek life. I don't see Martha, my roommate, but I assume she couldn't talk to me anyway since we are roommates. (I didn't really understand the silence rule, just that there was one!) I liked this chapter a lot.
Wicklow: I am sort of confused by this chapter. The house is in a more residential area and is cute but very small. In fact, our rush group has to take turns going inside because we don’t all fit. Because of that, we only have the chance to meet for a few minutes with the member we talk to, and there is one member talking to 3 of us. I don’t think this is the kind of Greek experience I am looking for, but I was very impressed with how these members carried themselves when they were obviously so different from the other chapters.
Donegal: This is a really beautiful house. The girl who rushes me is a senior who went to my high school and was in “Annie” with me. This was definitely the most personal treatment I got because she already knew a lot about me so we spent time actually having a deeper-than-normal rush conversation. I’m not sure about this chapter, though, the overall energy is a little low, and Sherry, the girl who rushed me, alluded to “the benefits of being in a smaller chapter.” I actually hadn’t noticed the size until she brought it up, but it sent up a red flag for me.
Dublin: This house looks like a castle. Tricia, my high school boyfriend’s friend, is a sophomore here. Tricia and I get along ok, but I don’t think we would have the same group of friends. I do like the girls who rush me and I have a nice time. Tricia finds me and gives a quick hello.
Waterford: I think this is the chapter that Barbara didn’t get, but I am not sure if I remembered the letters correctly. The exterior of the house is very pretty and I am excited to go inside. Doors open and wow. Everyone is dressed in Illini gear - Orange and blue outfits with face painting and hair ribbons. The energy is contagious. Their chant is even an Illini chant, rather than one for their sorority. I meet 3 girls, including Gerri from my high school, and kind of get passed around a lot. I didn’t care for the rush style (being bumped constantly) but it doesn’t affect my impressions. I LOVE this chapter!
Galway: I like everyone I meet here, but nothing special stands out to me. Julie, who had sent me the card over the summer, waves but I don’t get a chance to say hi. A few of us go into one of the active’s bedrooms to talk. One of the other rushees dominates the conversation so I just check out the room. It was small but very pretty and decorated in yellow. After we leave this chapter, Melissa and Kim tell me that they loved it. I was just ok. Kim is sure this is where she wants to pledge! I am a little disappointed that Julie didn’t rush me here. So far, people I knew have rushed me for the most part, so I guess it turned me off a little.
Wexford: This house is a little off the beaten path (I think – I am still a little confused about campus) and it is in more of a residential setting. It is a very pretty house, but once we get inside it is obviously physically much smaller than most of the others. There are teddy bears everywhere. We go into one of the bedrooms. It is a regular sized bedroom but 6 girls sleep in it! That seemed strange but fun to me. The girls I talked to were nice, but there was one rusher to 3 rushees and the rusher was bumped, so it was hard to make a connection.
Kildare: I have never heard of this sorority but the exterior of the house is gorgeous. It looks just like a sorority house should, and most of the houses at U of I do not follow this particular architectural style. Well, this party was awful. Right off the bat I see Mary Lisa, a sophomore from my high school who was very intimidating. She was pretty and smart and very wealthy. She was a cheerleader in high school. I didn’t even know she went to U of I. She passes right by me without any indication that she recognizes me, despite the fact that we were in Street Scenes together for 3 straight years in high school (I was a singer and she was a dancer). Great. This is not starting off well. I end up talking with an active while sitting on the floor behind a sofa. It was very loud in the living room and it was getting late. I was tired and I had nothing in common with the girl talking to me. She was nice enough, but I could tell they would not be inviting me back. As I suspected, Pam and Joelle love this chapter!
Offaly: It is pitch dark and everyone is dead tired. We are all sitting on the cement outside of this house and saying that we wished we could just skip it and go back home. This house is beautiful and I am pretty sure we have been on this street earlier today visiting other houses. Finally the party starts and the doors swing wide open. I cannot believe the energy in this chapter! It is practically midnight and these girls are singing, clapping, and smiling as if they just started. They are very welcoming and the inside of the house is as pretty as the outside. They show us a picture of a famous alumna of their chapter. It is kind of funny because we know what she looks like now as a famous person, and to see her sorority composite photo is a little strange but funny. Plus, it sort of seems like a shrine or something, which is a little strange to me. I really like this chapter and I hope that I get invited back! As we left, a lot of the girls were commenting that this was a favorite. (I don’t think because of the picture of the famous alumna – we all made fun of that!)
Notes from Day 1:
I think that at some large schools, buses are used to transport the rushees from house to house. Not so for us. We had to walk all over Champaign and Urbana in the heat, with no regard for our shoe selections! This was incredibly tiring and made first stage a real blur. In my opinion, it put the chapters that came later in the schedule at a huge disadvantage because the rushees were so fatigued. Also, there were not tents set up in front of the houses to shade us as we waited for parties to start. We just stood on the sidewalk, and as the day dragged on, we sat on the ground!
Another observation was that despite the artistic nametags that we were all required to make, each sorority gave us a nametag to wear during the party that they removed before we left. This was irritating to me because I wondered why it was so important for us to make the ridiculous artsy-craftsy one if the chapters already made cute ones for us!!! (I later learned this assisted the chapters in keeping rushees straight. It was for the rushees’ protection, really)
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OK, so that was a really long post, but that is only half of first stage!!! There just are a lot of sororities!
Hybrid Mode
