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Fall recruitment returns for all sorority freshmen |
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Tuesday, 24 April 2007 |
by LAUREN LAWSON
News Reporter
After numerous drafts, meetings and proposals, Appalachian State University approved the return to traditional fall formal freshmen recruitment for eligible freshmen wanting to join a sorority.
“We met with the sorority women to rework the proposal a number of times last year and the final draft was completed end of spring 2007 for submission,” Aaron H. Bachenheimer, assistant director for the
Center for Student Involvement and Leadership, said.
“There are expectations from both the university as well as from the sororities,” he said.
Deferred rush was instituted in 2002 due to research done on
fraternities and sororities concerning factors such as GPA and
involvement on campus, Bachenheimer said.
“Appalachian acknowledged that we would review deferred recruitment, we wanted to research where it would go,” he said.
When deferred rush was instituted there were concerns about academic
involvement in other things, new member education process and the use
and abuse of alcohol, Bachenheimer said.
Allison L. Unumb, a junior public relations major, joined Chi Omega the
first chance she got - second semester of her freshman year.
“I was kind of upset when I came to school my freshman year and all of
my friends were rushing already at other schools like [North Carolina
State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill],”
Unumb said.
“I think if we had rushed first semester it would have been a much
easier transition from high school to college just considering the
security blanket you lost when you aren’t around your girlfriends,” she
said.
Fraternities currently still have deferred rush and will have it for the 2007-08 school year.
Fraternities have started the process by taking the “first step” of
adopting the standards of excellence program, Bachenheimer said.
The standards of excellence are minimum standards set by the Greek councils.
“I see that as fraternities acknowledging the need to raise the bar,” Bachenheimer said.
Nicholas P.
Matus, a junior finance and banking major and Sigma Phi Epsilon member,
thinks returning to traditional fall rush will help recruitment numbers.
“Some kids would immediately rush their first semester, but once
they’ve gotten their own groups in university they don’t think they
need to anymore and don’t know the benefits of joining,” Matus said.
“I definitely wanted to join my first semester. My family was in the
same fraternity and I had heard about Greek life for a long time,” he
said.
Deferred rush for fraternities means that in order to join, a student
must have acquired 12 hours of college credit and achieved a 2.25 grade
point average.
“My advice to [fraternities] is to raise their standards and the bar for their chapters,” Bachenheimer said.
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