It's sorority rush. It's the most wonderful time of the year.
Except that it's not. It's a time characterized by shrill shrieks and yells emanating from commons rooms and hectic hordes of girls busily criss-crossing the campus in their best casual outfits.
But although almost everyone acknowledges and jokes about the superficial nature of the sorority rush process, hardly anyone ever talks about how much this image hurts the greek system as a whole. And the effects are not negligible--by opting for speed over substance when it comes to rush, most sororities are selling themselves short on the potential of their greek experience. Rather than finding the best fit for each potential member, the current sorority rush seems to be more concerned with shortening the unpleasant ordeal to only one week in January.
Even though this eases the pain of having to express one's personality on a nametag, I think that's the wrong way to go. You can de-emphasize clothing and stress that girls should be themselves in The Rush Handbook all you want, but giving rushees only a handful of opportunities to meet their potential sisters further emphasizes their immediately discernible features when it comes to bid selection.
Judging by what information I could gather from the Panhellenic Council's website, I think this is especially true in the "theme parties" during the first round, where a few dozen rushees have about 40 minutes to meet the sisters of the sorority. If you give someone so little time to present herself, she'll undoubtedly be labeled as that (body type) girl from (city name) wearing a (color) outfit by (designer) who wants to be (career goal). What else can be the topic of conversation--there certainly isn't enough time to discuss the experiences that make people who they are.
The sad thing is that this is a vicious cycle. Shortening the rush process increases its superficiality; the more superficial you make the rush process, the more hurtful you make the rejections. And if looks and first impressions appear to play such prominent roles in the selection process, the implications of being cut will be brutal for most girls: They'll think that they either don't look good enough to be invited to join the group or that they don't leave a very good first impression. I imagine either of these would be very hard to take for anyone, male or female.
But what if the process were different? What if rush lasted three to four weeks? What if, instead of singing songs and trying to meet as many girls as possible while parading around in new outfits, rushees could choose the events they wanted to attend and hang out with the sisters they cliqued with, ultimately choosing a sorority that is the best match for their values?
Values? Sadly, it's been a while since anyone's connected this term with sorority--or even fraternity--rush. What do sororities and fraternities at Duke stand for these days anyway? It certainly isn't obvious from looking at the rush process.
Being a sister or a brother was once about philosophies concerning friendship, culture, character, ethics and loyalty. Yet, we no longer talk about these values when we discuss greek organizations. Instead, it appears that both sororities and fraternities are serving as symbols of how we have fun rather than what we stand for in life. And although how we have fun is often a reflection of our personal beliefs that connection seems to be fading as well. Instead, the prevailing perception during sorority rush is that you're auditioning for a social scenario, as one freshman girl was recently quoted as saying in The Chronicle.
I suppose I should point out that there's nothing inherently wrong with any of this. When you get down to it, obtaining a constant social outlet and a secondary identity to utilize on the weekends is as valid of a reason for joining a greek organization as any.
Yet, I can't help thinking that greek organizations were intended to be--and still could be--so much more than just expensive social clubs. If properly run, they are an invaluable career resource and a singular opportunity to join a second family that will aid and assist you in overcoming the many challenges you will face in life, in college and afterwards.
But it all starts with the nature of the recruitment efforts because how you construct your rush process says plenty about your organization. If you offer someone a bid to join your group after seeing them only a few times, that ultimately says that you don't take membership in your organization all that seriously.
And until this attitude changes, most greek organizations on this campus will remain but a shadow of what they could be and of what they were intended to be.
Marko Djuranovic is a Trinity senior and former health and science editor of The Chronicle. His column appears every other Tuesday.
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