On Sept.16, the Hillsdale College fraternities kicked off fall rush.
The new rush period will last for an entire month, Sept. 16 to Oct. 14. In the old system, students had only a week to decide which fraternities they were interested in. Now they have a month. Fraternity leaders said they hope the new system with benefit both the pledges and the fraternities.
“The old system felt very, no pun intended, rushed,” said Scott Rode, president of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity.
He said that the new system gives men more time to build relationships with the rushees and then determine who would make a good fit for the fraternity.
In years past, Hillsdale fraternities operated under a “formal recruitment” system. Essentially male students interested in Greek life went to mandatory events at each fraternity over a week-long period.
The students would write out their top fraternity choices and give them to the Dean of Men Aaron Petersen, while the fraternities would formulate their own bid list. The dean would then match the lists and a formal initiation would follow.
In the new process, members of fraternities will meet the male students around campus and recruit those they think would make good a fit for their particular fraternity. The members will inform Petersen of their choices and the chosen students have until Oct. 14 to either accept or decline the bid.
Junior Andrew Smith, president of Sigma Chi fraternity, said the new system gives students a chance to get to know the fraternities they are rushing.
“In the old system each fraternity would put on their best front, like they are the greatest people [on campus],” said Cody Eldredge, president of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. “After a month, it is hard to fake that.”
Eldredge is the one who initially suggested the change in rush to the dean because the ATO president believed it would benefit the fraternities and the Greek system as a whole. He said the new system is more advantageous for both the recruits and the fraternities.
“Quantity drives quality,” Eldredge said. “The more people a fraternity has to choose from, the better opportunity that fraternity has to pick up quality guys,” he added.
Rode agreed with Eldredge, saying that the fraternities will now have more responsibility.
Rode said the fraternities will now be required to find quality men while rushees are given more time to consider their options and make an informed decision.
“I feel it is more considerate [to the men rushing],” Rode said.
Petersen named two rush systems as the “two ends of the spectrum”: a one week formal rush, the Hillsdale fraternities’ old system, or open recruitment.
Open recruitment allows fraternities to seek out new recruits at any point in the year. Petersen said that open recruitment tends to decrease energy and cause problems within the system. He considers the new process to be a hybrid of the two, although leaning towards the traditional process.
“National fraternity organizations have done research discovering that unlike women, men usually do not go to college planning on joining a fraternity,” Petersen said. “Men tend to make quick decisions and dislike feeling pressured to sign up and visit each chapter.”
Petersen said he believes this new system takes such research into account.
“They would rather decide without jumping through as many hoops.”