Hello fellow greeks!
Given our current state of sorority manic, I thought it would be interesting to compare sorority recruitment to fraternity rush. As a member of a chapter on campus that is required to go through formal recruitment each fall, I often think about what it we would be like if we held rush parties the way fraternities do. While I can’t exactly picture a bunch of girls on the lawn grilling and throwing a ball back and forth, I imagine the process might be equally as effective. Now ladies I know you’re thinking one of two things - either that I'm insane or that this is an awesome idea.
Formal recruitment requires each PNM to visit every participating chapter at least once. We do this for many reasons, one of them being to avoid stereotyping and rumors that you hear during recruitment. But what if guys also had to do this? Can you imagine your guy friends lining up outside of each fraternity while the current members are chanting at the top of their lungs? No, exactly. That’s a little terrifying. But why are we different? I’m sure guys hear plenty of rumors before they attend rush parties. The “dude flirting” can even be seen while walking to class. If the ladies were caught talking to a PNM outside of recruitment, this would be considered dirty rushing, and we could then get our respective chapters in trouble.
One main question comes to mind – Would sororities end up with equally great pledge classes if we didn’t use the formal recruitment process? Don’t get me wrong, I understand the reasons why we have rules in place and why formal recruitment is essential on our campus, but I like to entertain the idea of sororities having rush parties and fraternities spending three weekends singing. I wonder if we would have the same amount of success at finding new members as fraternities do in their processes. Some of you might think this process would be shallow, but the fraternities seem to do just fine. Their members tend to be just as close as ours are, and they have all the other excellent qualities we do.
Despite your opinion, it’s interesting to consider what would happen if we traded places. If you get bored in classes this week, just imagine frat guys singing during preference round and sorority girls passing a football with PNMs.
Have a great second week Purdue!
