Chico State rush?

[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!

[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.

[thetalady]

Looks like there is a bit of information on meeting Greeks on the CSUsite, but it is tough to find:

Thursday August 24th

Meet the Greeks 4-6pm in Sutter Courtyard
Wondering what it might be like to be a part of Greek Life? Want to get the real scoop on what it’s like to be a member of our Greek family? Join us for ice cream and conversations with our social Greek fraternity and sorority members!

Sunday September 3rd

Bidwell Bash featuring the Greek Carnival

1-4pm at One Mile picnic area, Bidwell Park
bbb logo Featuring Greek Carnival! Spend your Sunday afternoon basking in the beauty of Bidwell Park! Bike, take a shuttle, or walk to the Cedar Grove picnic area. Your AS officers provide the BBQ and Chico State Greek organizations will put on the fun and games! Shuttles leave from UV or Whitney Hall, or join Choose to Cruise for the bike ride over!

http://www.csuchico.edu/wildcatwelcome/

[CaliAggie]

Thank you!

[ARKTTKA]

Recs for fraternities are very rare, my group does have an online rec submission form that I have used a few times for young men that I know personally. I've never heard of them being required anywhere, but I'm old. ; )

[elicampbell]

My organization accepts recs for new members. I have only done it a few times. I think that it is not the norm.

[PhilTau]

You are not the first dad to ask this site how to prepare his son for rush. For social fraternities only, I suggest the following:

1) When is Rush? I was able to find Chico State's Greek website at http://www.csuchico.edu/fsa/index.shtml It will tell you how to find out about rush (and when it occurs) and had a fair degree of information. It said 12 percent of the students at Chico State are members of Greek organizations.

2) Format/expectation? Unknown. To really know, you will need to know someone who was recently involved at Chico State. Very hard to do unless a recent Chico State alum or current member is on this site.

3) Preparation - How you can help:

Recommendation letters for fraternities. We can only speak for our own experience. My experience was a long time ago. I recall that we received only one recommendation letter from an alum when I was an active. We took that letter very seriously.

Social Media - clean it up.

Clothes - take him to a good store where the sales clerks know what college kids at Chico State are wearing and buy him some new clothes. Also (very important), be sure he knows how to do and does his laundry.

Recognize that it is a different world now - For example, back when fraternities had dinosaurs as mascots, 18 was the drinking age, little sister groups were an important and influential part of the fraternity and, when discovered, homosexuals were kicked out or made to take alumni status. It is a very different world now. So take off any pressure on your son to join immediately. He may want to get to know the lay-of-the-land before jumping into a four-year commitment to any group. He should be cautious and take the time to learn more about the various fraternities (and the people in them) other than just what they want him to know. If he decides to wait, he will know more about each fraternity by spring semester.

4) Unrecognized - Unless there is good reason, stick with the recognized IFC chapters. Typically, both the school and the IFC impose a degree of control, ideals, obligations and rules on the chapters.

[CaliAggie]

Lots of great advice and feedback here, thank you so much.

My wife just found out from a friend on FB that incoming freshman have to wait until the spring to rush at Chico State. So, it looks like we will have some extra time to research and prepare. I'm actually used to freshman rushing in the fall but tbh I like the idea of new students, particularly my son, settling into college life and checking stuff out before rushing.

But back to my original annoyance, it's a little frustrating that this basic information isn't posted anywhere on the Chico State website, and that no one in the Greek Life office has bothered to return our calls or reply to our email. Oh well.

[TLLK]

Hi CaliAggie. My husband graduated from Chico in 1989 but was not a part of the Greek system though his college girlfriend was in a sorority. Back then Chico still had the reputation of being one of the nation's top party schools however the city and university have tried to tame that image. All Greek housing is off campus in an older residential neighborhood, but it is in walking distance university. According to my spouse the Greek system was small even then.

I'm not surprised that you have not had much luck with communicating with their Greek Life Office as it has been the experience of family and friends who have tried to work with the ones at more than one Cal State.

[CaliAggie]

Thank you for passing that along, that's very useful. It seems that the party school image is something that the Chico State Greek system has been struggling with for some time now.

After doing a little bit of research I discovered a long history of trouble between the GLO's and the university and community. It also looks like the entire Greek Life was shut down at Chico State about five years ago, so the GLO's may be still trying to get back on their feet and reestablish themselves. Whether there are adequate reforms in place is the big question.

[CaliAggie]

Just wanted to post an update on this, my son was home for Thanksgiving and of course we were all asking him about school and whatnot, and whether he is going to rush, as we have Greek alums on both sides of the family. He is having a blast at Chico and is still very much on the fence about joining a fraternity. He says that GLO's aren't really a big deal there, as others had mentioned upthread about how small the system is, and that he may want to stay away due to the recent bad press for GLO's at his school and elsewhere. He and his roommates have plenty to do when they are not studying anyway.

So, I guess we'll wait and see what happens. No pressure either way. I'm mostly just glad that he's learning a lot, making a lot of new friends and getting excited about things he may otherwise may have never taken an interest in. Can't ask for much more than that.

[TLLK]

Hi CalAggie-Very glad to hear that your son is enjoying Chico and has found some interests there on campus.