NC State’s first ever formalized fraternity rush implemented by the Interfraternity Council ended last week. However, some members said the formalization caused problems and delivered unintended consequences.
“At first, it was good,” said Adam Elshanawany, recruitment chair of Sigma Pi-Rho and sophomore in biological engineering. “It gave us a chance to meet guys that I normally wouldn’t outside of rush. And then, my opinions really changed with the results.”
Rush week began Sept.12 at the Miller Fields, where each of the 22 fraternities had a tent and talked to potential members about what their particular chapter had to offer. From there, potential members were told to pick their top six.
“There was a lot of cool people I met,” said Ethan Hill, newly pledged Sigma Phi Epsilon and engineering first-year freshman. “But by the time I was at my 22nd tent, I totally forgot who I had talked to at my first.”
On Saturday, the pledges went to the houses of the six fraternities they chose the day before. Transportation to carry the potential members back and forth between the on and off campus fraternities was included in the $30 registration fee.
IFC ordered five buses for Saturday’s Open House. However, only three buses arrived.
Aiden Burke, newly pledged Pi Kappa Phi, said the schedule and transportation was chaotic.
“They didn’t have all the buses figured out,” Burke said. “By midday, the schedule was so messed up that we just aban- doned the schedule and went to the houses when we wanted.”
Instead of hosting casual events unregulated by the IFC to gain new pledges, each fra- ternity had to put in more effort into their rush week activities to compete with the 21 other fraternities now seeking the same pledges.
“Larger fraternities got even larger classes, and smaller ones got smaller classes,” said Chris Macon, president of Sigma Pi Epsilon and senior in mechanical engineering. “When these guys are exposed to more fraternities, they’re more inclined to go to the larger chapters. This really hurts the smaller chapters and even the average size chapters.”
Adam Feshel, a junior in business administration and recruitment chair for Sigma Nu, a fraternity known for having larger pledge classes (typically around 45 in both the spring and fall semesters), said formalized rush was not beneficial to the smaller chapters.
“We’ve never really had prob- lems with recruitment,” Feshel said. “But I think that some of the smaller fraternities got weeded out. Down the road you’ll probably see some of the smaller ones die out.”
Elshanawany said Sigma Pi- Rho got the same size pledge classes that it would have ex- pected doing it the old way.
“For all the extra work, it really wasn’t worth it,” Elshanawany said.
While many pledges were confused with the attempt at a formalized rush, active members also expressed discontent in the way the process turned out.
“No one really knew what was going on because no one had ever done this before,” Feshel said.
According to the IFC, the goal of formalized rush was to level the playing field to give each new member a chance to meet with all 22 fraternities on campus, in turn generating bigger pledge classes.
Chris Jefferson, associate di- rector of the IFC, said the IFC lost a lot of people that signed up for fraternity recruitment in past years before formalized re- cruitment.
“It was a unified effort to make sure the people in the fraternities had an opportunity to see all of the fraternities that were represented,” Jefferson said.
Regardless of intentions, planning mishaps combined with unfamiliarity with the new system left many current brothers and new pledges dis- appointed with the outcome.
“Formal rush was not all that it was promised to be,” said Trey Edwards, president of Chi Psi.
Edwards said he thinks a duel formal and informal rush system should be imple- mented.
“That way smaller frater- nities can still do informal recruitment and look for guys that normally wouldn’t be interested in a fraternity otherwise,” Edwards said.
Jefferson said he acknowledges that transitioning into a formal rush happened on a short timeline.
“In theory, it is a good process,” Jefferson said. “I just don’t think they thought all of the logistics through. I understand that this is their first time.”
A presence round table meet- ing is scheduled for Wednesday, Sep. 24. The board and presidents of the IFC will attend along with each chapter president to discuss how the first formal recruitment went and the future of the system.