Waiting beats deactivating
As an incoming first-year, my first uneasy experience at this university concerned what many consider the “end all, be all” of SMU’s social life — rush. (You’re supposed to call it “recruitment,” but we’ll stick to “rush” here.)
Most of the questions whirled between incoming students during my AARO session were of the “what is your a major?” and “are you are going to rush?” variety.
It wasn’t even my first week of college. How was I supposed to know? But the pressure was already on.
In the whirlwind of peer pressure and overwhelming wave of inquiry, recruitment gains a mystique for incoming first-year. For the uninformed masses, rush can have detrimental affect. In some cases, first-year students receive the impression that rush is the only way to become truly involved at SMU. Nothing is further from the truth.
A plethora of groups, organization, and clubs exist at SMU. Whatever beliefs, ideas, or values you hold, some group on campus shares your commitment.
Unfortunately for some, a great deal of time, effort and money (thousands of dollars) is wasted on conforming to a Greek culture because students feel it’s the “think to do” whether or not those Greek letters represent a true reflection of their values.
As first-years, any notions you have about sorority or fraternity life will be somewhat uninformed because you are not (yet) in a house. But you’ll likely be drawn in to “go along with the crowd” for the sake of fitting in — a high school, adolescent tendency that your college education will help you overcome.
Recruitment week itself has the capability to be unbearable. Before the recruits show up, house members prepare to look their best. After the perspective members go home, rush chairs (those placed in charge of recruitment for their respective houses) critique the day’s work. Sororities delay sleep to cut girls they hardly remember from four parties ago. Actually getting to know the recruits or assessing how they “fit” the fraternity or sorority doesn’t really happen until you have already pledged. (You make a “pledge” to join and pay membership dues; like “pledges” on TV to Jerry Lewis for kids with polio).
Ultimately, recruitment is a lot of guesswork. Sometimes houses are right, and sometimes they are wrong. Houses lose members throughout the pledged four years of membership. The “rush” to fit in as first-year can become an expensive and time-consuming mistake.
So why do the houses put so much effort into the process?
Sorority and fraternity recruitment is a financial endeavor. The point is to persuade you to join a house. Sororities and fraternities are monetarily driven institutions. National dues help pay bills and maintain upkeep, but recruitment is essential for the survival of Greek organizations. At the most basic level, rush is about money, and SMU is a goldmine.
Deferring rush to January instead of recruiting in August allows house members to scope out the new first-year for a semester, and garner their top picks.
Other rules of engagement exist. Sending in your Pan-Hellenic registration form allows each sorority house to receive your information and picture. Rush chairs in each house will show your picture to as many members as possible, by whatever means possible. Houses understand the image they must project. Members want you to recognize how welcoming and nice the people are in house-X. Sometimes the house solicits elitism to reel you in.
Naturally, there is competition between sororities and fraternities for perspective members. It might surprise you that some first-years are more heavily recruited than others are, but it shouldn’t.
Value in the rush market derives from various characteristics: your ability to dress well and appropriately, your looks, your grades in high school, and your ability to socialize with other acting Greeks.
If these things seem incredibly shallow it is because they are inherently superficial. Members of the fraternities and sororities cannot truly know you in the brief time they are allowed to spend with you. Houses do their best and realize snap judgements can often be made in error. But recruitment puts unsuspecting first-year under a microscope, and the big picture can easily be swept away.
Sorority rush week proves to be a very different experience than the recruitment of guys into frats. Generally, the women follow more formal rules.
Women, be warned: the double standard is in effect. You will get a “reputation” for being too popular with the guys. For the men popularity with the ladies can be a good thing. But this is more indicative of society at large and it’s hardly exclusive to the Greeks.
For some people on this campus, rush is the most important event of the school year; for others rush means very little, if anything. Avoid being the unsuspecting lemming rushing unknowingly into the arms of cheering, matching jerseys.
Many students are blindsided by the rush chatter that surrounds them during their first semester at SMU. But, hopefully, you’re now enlightened to a few of the underpinnings of a sketchy, but sacred SMU ritual.
Let the sororities and fraternities take first-year fervently pine for the day when they can “go greek.” Ambivalent newcomers should find their own voice before becoming an apathetic follower.
