Chico State rush?

[thetalady]

Originally Posted by CaliAggie

Howdy

My oldest is heading to Chico State next month and we are trying to get some information about Fall rush. We checked the Greek Life website and have also emailed and left voice messages but no one has gotten back to us after multiple attempts.

To be honest, I am doing most of the legwork here, my son is a bit lukewarm about Going Greek as none of his friends have or intend to join a fraternity. However, he has heard countless stories from my wife & I, both Greek alums, and is at least open to the idea of rushing and seeing if he might like it. I sure hope he does, as some of my fondest memories of college are from being in a fraternity. It also builds great character and I still keep in touch with my brothers from over 25 years ago.

Anyhow, I was wondering if I could ask a few simple questions:

1. WHEN IS RUSH?? I know this is a pretty basic piece of information but I am surprised that no dates have been posted and there is no information at all online at the school's Greek Life and IFC. We have not received anything in the mail about rush either, and classes start in less than two months so I am a little bit frazzled!

2. What is the format and what can he expect? My wife & I went to a different school at a completely different time so I imagine things have changed quite a lot. Also is it still called Rush? I see that it is mostly referred to as 'Recruitment' now.

3. What does he need to do to prepare for fall rush/recruitment? My son heard that he will have to send in letters of recommendation in advance, as well as submit a resume and a profile and his social media links. Is that right? And does any of that change if he's a legacy?

4. What is the deal with unrecognized houses? My fraternity has a chapter that is listed as 'unrecognized' on the Chico State website. However last I checked the chapter was still recognized by nationals. When I contacted nationals they said it sometimes happens at some schools but I can still contact the chapter and let them know my son is a legacy. But my question is whether there is a bigger danger of him not being in an IFC recognized house? Because if it's all the same I would love for my son to give my fraternity a close look.

I apologize for all the questions but as you can see there's a lot of stuff we wanted information on and the Greek Life office at Chico has been no help at all. Maybe they are all gone for the summer. Well, thanks in advance for your help!

First, I think you are getting sorority recruitment mixed up with fraternity rush. AFAIK, fraternities do not generally work with recommendations, as the women do.

I do think fraternities still refer to it as "rush". It is overall far more informal and laid back, than sorority recruitment, with an ENTIRELY different set of rules. The whole thing with resumes and letters of recommendation are generally for sorority rush.

I will leave the rest of your questions to the guys here to handle. I would suggest that you do some Googling to read up on the Greek system at Chico State to check the health of the Greek system there. Good luck!

[CaliAggie]

Originally Posted by thetalady

First, I think you are getting sorority recruitment mixed up with fraternity rush. AFAIK, fraternities do not generally work with recommendations, as the women do.

I do think fraternities still refer to it as "rush". It is overall far more informal and laid back, than sorority recruitment, with an ENTIRELY different set of rules. The whole thing with resumes and letters of recommendation are generally for sorority rush.

I will leave the rest of your questions to the guys here to handle. I would suggest that you do some Googling to read up on the Greek system at Chico State to check the health of the Greek system there. Good luck!

Thanks for the clarification... yes, it was similar back in my day with rush too, fraternity and sorority rush were two completely different worlds (very casual vs. very formal processes) but my wife says she never had to worry about resumes and recommendations so we were wondering if it was a school specific thing?

Your idea of reading up on Chico State's Greek System is a very good one and we did actually find some tidbits about how poorly it is administered. That's also where my question about 'unrecognized chapters' came from. It doesn't help that Chico State is listed as a top party school, either. But I hope the Greek System is improving and that standards and reforms are in place. My sister was at UC Santa Barbara back when it had the 'top party school' designation and she was able to stay clear of trouble while having a positive sorority experience. I'm hoping for the same for my son.

Thank you again for your feedback, I hope others will chime in too, there's so much great information on this site.