Vibhavari Vempala
Shannon Robbins and Caleb Ocampo, sophomores in engineering, Alberto Berrizbeitia, sophomore in International studies, Anne Carrol, a junior in political science, and David Lovato, a sophomore in chemical engineering hang out and get to know each other at the fellowship event held by Alpha Phi Omega as part of their spring rush at the alley on Monday, January 25th. 'It's so fun meeting all the new potential pledges!' said Caleb. 'Simply great seeing so many people interested in providing service and making friends with others from all sorts of backgrounds' said Alberto.
Fraternity Life’s Spring Rush ended last Friday and brought in a new crop of fraternity members to each of the 21 chapters on NC State’s campus. Spring Rush gives potential members the opportunity to meet various fraternities and sororities. The fraternities plan out different activities and events in an effort to get to know those interested in joining.
“Spring Rush is important because it opens the window to guys who weren’t ready to rush in the fall,” said Brandon Burns, vice president of recruitment of Sigma Phi Epsilon.
Burns explained that guys might not be ready in the fall because sometimes they are not yet sure if they want to join a fraternity, or they simply want to spend the semester getting settled into the college lifestyle. Spring Rush gives those who weren’t ready to rush in the fall the opportunity to join in the spring. This way they don’t have to wait until the next fall to join.
However, William Nash, a sophomore studying sociology and recruitment chair of Kappa Sigma, said Fall Rush drains a majority of the prospects for Spring Rush.
“Our lists in the spring are a fraction of what they are in the fall, because nearly everyone joins somewhere in the fall,” Nash said. “Spring Rush is a completely different ball game.”
Despite the challenegs Spring Rush can bring, Nash said he is happy with the prospect of new recruits.
“I feel like our rush went really well because above numbers we have a really solid group of guys everyone in the chapter really enjoys being around,” Nash said. “We’ve always been a small chapter based around having a really tight-knit group of guys, so numbers has never really been a large priority in our book as much as getting the right guys for our chapter. That being said however, it was very hard this semester to get names of guys to come out to events because most of the guys interested in rushing end up joining a chapter in the fall due to formal rush.”
Derek Bingham, a sophomore studying supply chain management and Spanish and recruitment chair for Lambda Chi was also pleased with the 12 new members they gained.
“Because we have grown in size, we can be more exclusive with who we extend bids to,” Bingham said.
Burns said that he finds that guys who join during the spring tend to be more “intentional” and not just “going through the motions” of joining because they waited so long and they know they actually want to do it. He explained that it “filters guys who actually want to rush.”
Nash spoke of the nationally negative light Greek Life has received as of late.
“It’s a lot harder to convince parents on why joining Greek Life is a positive nowadays because of all the negative light fraternities have recently received due to the media,” Nash said.
Spring Rush is less formal than Fall Rush by which it gives the chapters more freedom and creativity to plan activities and events during the week. According to Burns Spring Rush brings in anywhere from five to 15 guys. For Spring Rush, fraternities get to self-schedule its own events and activities.
Burns said that Sigma Phi Epsilon held dinners at the house to let the potential brothers get to know the members. It also had alumni come in and talk about their personal experience in Sigma Phi Epsilon and discuss the values they took away from it. Burns described the alumni talk as the “most successful rush event.”
Kappa Sigma also focused its events around football and cookouts.
“A lot of chapters will host large events almost to put on a false face of who they are and what they enjoy doing,” Nash said. “We liked having guys come over just to hang out because we really felt that each potential member should see what just hanging out with us is like.”
Fraternities not included in the Interfraternity Council, like Delta Sigma Iota, which is in the Multicultural Greek Council are not subject to the strict rush dates. Their rush events do not begin until Monday Feb. 15.