By Ricky Thompson

For freshman Mike Golden, pledging to a fraternity this fall is an idea he said he has been more than willing to entertain throughout his first few weeks on campus.

“The events have been interesting,” said the physical therapy major after attending a series of “rush” events since activities officially began Sept. 19. “They’ve been a good place to meet people.”

After leaving his home and family, Golden said he was on a quest for “something a little different,” which may include turning toward Greek life. Last week, fraternities began making an active push for recruitment of freshmen and other students like Golden.

During the rush process, potential pledges meet with current members and leaders from the various Greek organizations in order to introduce one another. The organizations provide newcomers with a prospective on what Greek life is all about, along with the benefits and responsibilities that go with it.

“When you’re in a sorority, you become responsible for not just yourself, but everything you do reflects on the sorority as well,” said Kathleen McGuire, a member of the Delta Zeta sorority.

For fraternities, rushing is a two-week process that is overseen by the school’s Interfraternity Council. The events held throughout the first week are done so on neutral ground, with a main objective aimed at gathering attention toward Greek life in general.

The second week focuses primarily on “house rushing,” when pledges turn their attention toward the specific fraternities that strike their interest as well as the members that make up that organization.

“Attendance has been very good this week,” said Igor Belagorudsky, president of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity.

Founded on the principle to “provide opportunities for the Jewish college man seeking the best possible college and fraternity experience,” Alpha Epsilon Pi conducts its rush events in “a slightly different manner.” Rather than disclose a posted schedule, it instead prefers to seek out pledges who share their common background.

Before the first week had commenced, Belagorudsky said the fraternity had “already started giving out bids” and had yet to receive a refusal.

The procedure for joining a sorority, which began with an informational meeting Sunday, follows a more structured model compared to the fraternity process. From Monday through Wednesday, pledges attended a series of “parties” designed to ultimately decide which sorority is their best fit.

The first two nights they meet with each of the five sororities, with each party lasting a half hour, said Lauren Taylor, a recruitment counselor for the Panhellenic Council.

Pledges are put into groups and assigned a recruitment counselor, and then their groups, at the end of the night, meet up with the recruitment counselor again to discuss how things went and which sororities they’d be interested in joining, she said. “Then the rest of the week is just described as a mutual selection process.

“It gives sororities a chance to look at the women and the women to look at the sororities,” said assistant director of student activities Laura Parrillo, who acts as advisor to the Greek organizations on campus. “By the end of the week, if there’s a match, a bid is extended and someone starts the new member process.”

A sorority must invite a pledge back to its party in order for that individual to attend the activities for the following two evenings. In doing this, the pledge should have a strong ambition toward one or two specific organizations by Thursday night.

On that night pledges will attend their “preference parties.” This is more of a formal, fancier event than those preceding it. At the end of the night, the pledges will sign a “bid card,” which ranks the sororities they had just been with in their order of preference.

“I think this is effective because on the first night there’s a lot of anticipation about the organization and the women in the organization,” Parrillo said. “By Tuesday, the women are a lot more confident about themselves and with the process, so they can make more informed, better decisions.”

By Friday, each sorority has decided among its current members which pledges they would like to “bid” on, or invite to join the organization. That night, pledges are made aware of their status and, if they received a bid, have 24 hours to reply.