Sorority Recruitment Will Be Deferred at U. of Colorado

exlurker · #1 01-10-2005, 01:44 PM

The Monday, Dec. 10 Denver Post reports that the chancellor and a vice-chancellor of the University of Colorado have determined that sororities will have deferred (i.e., "spring") recruitment. No word yet about fraternity recruitment. See

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,...644634,00.html

There are references to some other universities that have deferred sorority recruitment (Indiana, Virginia, etc.). Of course, just a glance at polarpi's calendar here on GC will confirm that deferred recruitment is not all that uncommon. I'll bet it will take some adjustment for the chapters at Colorado, and change isn't always easy.

James · #2 01-10-2005, 01:52 PM

They should fight it now.

They shouldn't make a huge deal of it, but a quiet message that says that they will continue to recruit in the Fall seems appropriate.

ITs technically ilegal for the univesity to do that.

valkyrie · #3 01-10-2005, 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by James
ITs technically ilegal for the univesity to do that.

Since I'm involved with a chapter at this school, deferred recruitment could be an important development for me. Would you please point me to the statute that makes this illegal so I can look it up and see what if anything we can do?

SmartBlondeGPhB · #4 01-10-2005, 02:28 PM

Since I'm not a lawyer and have no time to look up any statutes on this subject, I'm not going to pass judgement on whether it's legal or not. HOWEVER, if it WAS illegal I would guess that the GLO's would have fought it a LONG time ago. My school's been doing it since I was there in 1990 and there are many others who do deferred as well.

The school isn't telling them thay can't do it, they are simply setting the schedule..........and contrary to some opinions on the subject, moving to deferred doesn't really hurt the GLO's as much as they scream that it will beforehand.

James · #5 01-10-2005, 02:44 PM

I "think" that the Freedom of Association Act doesn't allow the school to discriminate against people that would like to associate with Greek organizations versus something else.

In this case the administration is singling out Greeks and not other organizations in delaying their right to associate.

Or at least thats the argument that the Executive Director of DKE was making when I spoke to him. He had something to do with the Act's passage.

Also related is the Supreme Court Case: Healey versus James
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/script...=408&invol=169

In this case the Supreme Court upheld the government's tendency to rule to not limit rights of association as applied to "unpopular organizations."

In this case these organiztions are already recognized but the administration is seeking to restrict the student's ability to associate because Greek life is currently unpopular.

One semester doesn't seem bad, but extended into a llogical absurdity the college could then defer Rush to sophomore year or even senior year.

Everyone needs to step up and just say . . thank you for the input but no.

Not that I expect the organizations in question to have the courage to do so.

They will probably release some statement about how eager they are to work with the administration and in a semester or two have some rationalization about how they are better off with deferred recruitment.

In other words they will just keep their heads down and hope someone else gets chopped.

PhoenixAzul · #6 01-10-2005, 03:27 PM

I'm just confused as to if FRATERNITY recruitment would be delayed, or just sorority recruitment. I think it would be unwise or perhaps unfair to allow one to recruit in fall and the other wait till spring/winter.

EPTriSigma · #7 01-10-2005, 03:30 PM

We just won this battle with our university. However, we did need to go above it to pass it through. With full knowledge of mandated university deferred recruitment being in violation of a supreme court rulling that stated somewhere to the effect of WE, AS PRIVATE ORGANIZATIONS, HAVE THE RIGHT TO DISCRIMINATE MEMBERSHIP, contacted national IFC and PHC. With the help of a strong alum support from most chapters as well as IFC we brought the case to the Attourney General which ruled that the university was in violation of the court ruling. Good thing too! Deferred recruitment was killing our chapters. Our numbers as a greek community as a whole had been cut in half since the implementation of deferred recruitment.

EPTriSigma · #8 01-10-2005, 03:32 PM

I would be more than happy to put you in contact with the person who helped push it for our campus. With the dynamic of college campuses changing the way that it is deferred recruitment is a killer to greek communities.

pinkyphimu · #9 01-10-2005, 07:21 PM

ok, so a fraternity pledge dies of alcohol poisoning....and the sororities have to have deferred recruitement, but not the fraternities. that is messed up.

nauadpi · #10 01-10-2005, 09:04 PM

There have been other stiuations there with alcohol this past year... Such as this article http://www.westword.com/issues/2004-...feature_1.html

This in my opinion would be one of the reasons why the university wants defered recruitment for the sororities....

James · #11 01-10-2005, 09:32 PM

The only relationship between deferred Rush and alcohol problems is to discourage people from joining Greek Life.

Can anyone see a different reason?

KDChiNicole · #12 01-10-2005, 09:56 PM

I actually do see a different reason for deferred rush. I go to a school which has 15 different locals on campus, and if you are a freshman, you are not allowed to rush until second semester. I know for me, as well as many other people this was a great benefit, as it allowed us to get to know members of different sororities, as well as find a place where we would fit in, and feel at home.

It really helps eliminate the number of people that go through rush, get a bid, and end up depledging because they realized later that they weren't in the right place. For me, when it came time to rush, I pretty much knew which sororities would be the ones I would want to join, and I'm now a very active member in my number one choice.

We do have fall rush, but it is for upperclassmen only, and is generally more low key than spring rush.

valkyrie · #13 01-10-2005, 10:27 PM

According to a story on the news tonight, they're still in the process of deciding what to do with fraternity rush.

Am I the only one who really doesn't see this as a big deal? I mean, yeah, it kind of sucks and I don't think it serves much of a valid purpose, but why not just deal with it, move on and figure out how to make it work? There are plenty of other schools with deferred recruitment, so it's not the end of the world.

Rudey · #14 01-10-2005, 10:49 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by valkyrie
According to a story on the news tonight, they're still in the process of deciding what to do with fraternity rush.

Am I the only one who really doesn't see this as a big deal? I mean, yeah, it kind of sucks and I don't think it serves much of a valid purpose, but why not just deal with it, move on and figure out how to make it work? There are plenty of other schools with deferred recruitment, so it's not the end of the world.

Perhaps it's because you joined as an alumni and not an undergraduate and thus did not experience Greek life as an undergrad, but this is not something I would have wanted to experience as an undergraduate. I joined our Greek community in fighting back our administration in controlling us and I strongly believe many fraternities across the country will resist it strongly.

-Rudey

KSigkid · #15 01-10-2005, 11:27 PM

I would have fought it as an undergrad - I never really saw the point of deferred rush overall, for either sororities or fraternities. If someone wants to make the choice to go Greek as a 1st semester freshman, more power to them, give them the chance.

If they had tried to pull that at Boston U, I would have been at the first meeting to voice my protest.