BY JEFFREY ROBINOWITZ
Staff Writer
Last week, F&M’s fraternities conducted the annual Spring Rush Week to allow potential new members the opportunity to join male Greek organizations. This year, a new pre- registration policy took effect which required students interested in rush to sign up via an online system.
The pre-registration system was implemented to give the College, as well as the fraternities on campus, information on potential rushes.
“All men looking to rush [were required] to fill out a survey with general questions such as graduation year, extra-curricular activities, and interest in specific fraternities,” said Hunter Citrin ’16, vice-president of membership recruitment for the Interfraternity Council (IFC).
Once registered, rushes were free to attend any event at any fraternity. According to Citrin, the IFC — which serves as a governing body for F&M’s fraternities and helps to plan Rush Week—faced issues picking a week to conduct rush.
“It seemed every week we chose, at least one fraternity would be missing executive members due to retreats and other commitments,” he said. Eventually, the IFC chose the week of Feb.10 to 14,as it was the only week that all fraternities would have their presidents, vice-presidents, and risk-managers present.
For the first four days of Rush Week, rushes were invited to attend events at one or more of the fraternity houses on campus so that they could meet brothers of that organization and decide if they wanted to join. On Thursday, the fourth night of Rush Week, brothers of each fraternity met to decide which rushes they wanted to extend bids of membership. On Friday, after receiving their bids, rushes had the option of accepting them by signing forms at the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life.
This semester, all seven of F&M’s social fraternities — Chi Phi, Delta Sigma Phi, Kappa Sigma, Phi Kappa Psi, Phi Kappa Sigma, Phi Kappa Tau, and Sigma Pi — were able to conduct Rush Week and have pledge classes.
“Hazing is a morally reprehensible act and has no business on our campus,” Citrin said, pointing out that the IFC takes allegations and incidents of hazing very seriously.
To that end, the IFC took steps to ensure the safety of students who rushed, such as instituting a dry Rush Week, increasing risk-management education to officers of all seven social fraternities, and meeting with every risk-management officer from each fraternity.
Citrin had many positive things to say about Rush Week, praising the creative work of the fraternities in hosting events for their rushes.
Additionally, he spoke highly of Dan Porterfield, president of the College, and his increased involvement with Rush Week and the pledging process; according to Citrin, Porterfield took an earlier flight from a prior commitment so that he could deliver a speech to the new members of each fraternity.
“The administration has a strong support for Greek Life on campus,” Citrin said.
First-year Jeffrey Robinowitz is a staff writer. His email is jrobinow@ fandm.edu.