I’m a member of Beta Theta Pi. The greek system at the U is in disrepair. Problems plague what should be one of the largest greek systems in the nation. Membership numbers are at an all-time low.
The greek system at the U is small. Currently, there are less than 2,000. This is at a school with thousands of undergraduates almost all of which commute. The greek system is a great way for these commuter students to have the college experience available at non-commuter schools.
It is obvious that few students take advantage of the system and much of the blame can be placed on a lack of coordination between the stakeholders of the system.
During Rush Week of every semester fraternities and sororities work together to recruit new members into their houses. Traditionally, Rush has been a weeklong ordeal in which students are exposed to every house. At the end of the week, the rushees rank the houses in the order of their preference and then the houses each do a draft, taking the members which they feel fit best.
Rush is done a little differently in the spring, however, and one fraternity, Sigma Chi, has decided to take advantage of the more informal process. The failure of this fraternity to work with the rest has the potential to ruin spring rush this year at the U.
It is critical that membership goes up in the greek system, or it may no longer be able to support itself.
Instead of taking members during Rush Week, this fraternity decided to allow 30 new people to commit to Sigma Chi (21 accepted) two weeks before the official Rush. Failure to work together is one of the largest problems in the greek system.
Hopefully, some of these new pledges will realize this fraternity has robbed them of the chance to see all the houses and consider other options on Greek Row.
No two greek houses on campus are the same. All have a different kind of membership and provides unique experiences. There truly is a place for every type of person within the greek system.
Not only should potential greeks come to this realization, but the system itself should as well. By not giving these rushees the chance to look at every house and decide which one is right for them, they rob themselves by getting members that aren’t right for the house. They especially rob the potential member of a good greek experience in a house where they belong.
Another problem is the premature rushing of the Latter-Day Saint Student Association’s faux-greek system.
LDSSA, by far the largest student organization on campus, does their version of rush before the greek system. This takes many potential real greeks before they even have a chance to examine the other options apart from LDSSA.
Unfortunately many of these LDSSA students do not know is that they can be part of both the real greek system and the LDSSA greek system. But currently once they’ve been rushed by LDSSA, they are no longer interested in the U greek system.
The greeks and LDSSA need to all work together in harmony to make the U a place where students come together to realize an actual college experience.