Since the beginning of the spring semester, one topic has dominated the discussions and lives of many University students, especially first years: rush.
While it may seem like everyone is doing it, the majority of students aren't participating. IFC and ISC presidents reported approximately 1,400 students, mainly first years, signed up for rush, out of a first-year community of just more than 3,100 students. Nevertheless, numerous first years opted out of the rush experience.
Many students choose not to rush because of the demanding schedule. Rush activities include numerous fraternity and sorority visits, date functions, mixers, road trips and parties that all carry on through the weekend and into the school week. Balancing these social events with schoolwork and other extracurricular activities often presents a challenge.
"I feel like it [is] a big time commitment," first-year College student Allison Harbin said. "I didn't see the need to do it."
In addition to the time commitment, some students said joining a fraternity or sorority isn't necessary to obtain the camaraderie and abundance of social events offered by the Greek system.
"I have plenty of friends who in essence serve a similar purpose to a frat, it's just that we don't need to have Greek letters and a house on Rugby Road," first-year College student Harrison Gibbons said.
Still, the effects of rushing spread to those individuals who chose to not participate. For example, students experienced time in their dorms without the typical levels of noise and chatter, Gibbons said.
However, rushing also led to initial feelings of being left out as others prepared for event after event, night after night.
"Coming back [from break] I felt really isolated," Harbin said. "I think there were four girls out of my hall of 25 that didn't rush."
As non-rushing students grew accustomed to the plethora of rush-inspired conversations around Grounds, life continued as usual.
"I still party when I want to party, it's not like I don't have fun," first-year Architecture student Rachel Jessup said.
The rush experience changed some of the pre-conceived notions of fraternities and sororities some non-rushers held. Before the semester began, Harbin thought sororities were exclusive and arbitrarily selected.
"I think I used to be really hostile towards sororities, but when you see the older sisters, they're not necessarily the stereotypes," Jessup said. "They're all nice and fun and like the kind of people I would hang out with."
Although these students did not personally choose to rush, they still support their friends who did.
"I'm happy for them because they found a place where they want to be," Gibbons said.
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