Art by Peau Porotesano
There are certain things that I have begun to associate with the beginning of a new Pepperdine school year: the Return, unread syllabi and Recruitment. Everyone (Greek or not) is affected by Recruitment, particularly rush, because of the strain it causes on students. With the potential benefits of an early recruitment, Recruitment needs to happen sooner.
According to Cambria Laganà, vice president of Panhellenic Ethics, “1 in 4 men and 1 in 3 women at Pepperdine are Greek”. While still the minority of the student population, Greek life is substantial enough to impact the student health and overall campus energy.
Currently, sorority Recruitment began this week on Tuesday with the ‘Meet the Chapters night’ and will not conclude until ‘Bid-Night’ on Sept. 19. Fraternity Recruitment will begin on Sept. 21 and conclude Oct. 2. This means that for one month over one-fourth of the student body will be undergoing Recruitment in addition to their studies and other commitments. Until Recruitment is complete, active sorority members may not speak with anyone who could potentially rush or any of the girls who are assisting as Rho Chi’s (active members of sororities who temporarily deactivate in order to neutrally assist the women rushing).
For those who have never been involved in Recruitment, it is tedious, time-consuming, exhausting and stressful. Each night, the parties in which Potential New Members (PNMs) talk with sorority actives (girls who are active members of the respective sorority) last from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. But this isn’t counting the amount of time needed to prep on both ends. By the time everyone gets home, it is well into the night. In the middle of feeling hurt that a PNM dropped your sorority, over-analyzing all of the night’s conversations and detoxing your pores of concealer, homework must still be done.
A decision must be made: either attention is paid to studies at the cost of sleep, or homework takes the back burner. Remember that the Recruitment process lasts about a month and either way, academic work will suffer.
If you think this doesn’t affect you because you are happily unaffiliated, you are wrong. Most of Pepperdine’s classes contain 20 or fewer students. When a fellow student is on the brink of falling asleep or obviously underprepared it affects your learning as it distracts others, inhibits class discussion and changes the group energy.
If that is not enough to convince you that it should be moved up, consider this: the first couple of weeks freshman year are a scary time because academics are hard and a community has yet to be established. Instead of ameliorating this, Pepperdine is increasing the stress by delaying rush. If Pepperdine had an earlier Recruitment, incoming freshman who rush would be immediately integrated and be shown around by people who already have a grip on things. In the current system, these upper classmen, who would serve as terrific mentors, are not even allowed to talk to the freshmen because it would be considered dirty rushing.
But there is an easy solution. Many universities hold Recruitment before school even begins, or in USC’s case, during syllabus week when the course load is still light. This allows students to give their full attention to the rush process without neglecting academia or a healthy REM cycle.
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