Students are rushing back into the thick of things at the U8212;including religious greek houses.
Sigma Gamma Chi and Lambda Delta Sigma, Latter-day Saints Student Association greek houses, began Rush this week.
However, unlike the nonreligious fraternities and sororities, the LDSSA greeks have not expressed a goal of recruiting more minorities, particularly blacks and Latinos, this year. They are instead casting a net for whoever wants to join.
LDSSA Rush Week began Tuesday for the Lambda Delta Sigma sorority chapters with an event at the Hunstman Center, and today there will be an orientation for the Sigma Gamma Chi fraternities, said Parker Hill, Sigma Gamma Chi interchapter counsel president.
The sororities will continue today with a barbecue and members will be placed into different chapters Thursday, said Melanie Means, interchapter counsel Rush officer.
On Thursday, the Rush carnival will be held at 8 p.m. on the east lawn of the Institute and is open to everyone from campus, Hill said. It gives students interested in joining a second opportunity to get to know more about the chapters, he said.
On Saturday there is the Rush Get Down, which is a dance held in the parking structure to the east of the LDS Institute. On Sunday at the Conference Center Theater downtown the Institute director, Grant Anderson, and LDSSA President Brad Anderson will speak.
LDSSA has more than 1,000 members and is split up into two groups: Lambda Delta Sigma and Sigma Gamma Chi. Sigma Gamma Chi has more than 500 members spread across 12 chapters, and Lambda Delta Sigma has more than 600 members spread over 17 chapters.
Joining LDSSA is a great opportunity to meet new people and join a social network, Means said. But there are many other benefits to joining, she said.
“It gives you a lot of opportunities to provide service and if you’re in it long enough, it provides leadership experience,” Means said.