Sorority Recruitment, or the aptly titled “rush,” is an annual process that breaks, wins and hardens hearts at the same time. It is an imperfect system at best and a ridiculous and shallow one at worst.
The 250 potential new members who participated this year, as well as Pepperdine’s seven sororities, know the drill: It’s a week of dressing cute, smiling big and perfecting small-talk skills. Every night, groups made up of mostly freshman women are herded into a room crammed with smiling, singing and clapping sorority members, who for a 20-minute to hour-long session direct all of their smiles, makeup and honed small-talk skills into “getting to know” PNMs while making them want to be apart of their sorority.
All of the trimmings go into the luring process: the décor, the matching shirts — and who could forget — the songs: “All we want is pledging you to Delta Delta Delta,” “Don’t you want to be a DG too?” and “Boom Boom, I wanna be a PiBeta Phi. Don’t you?”
What’s wrong with that? It’s American propaganda at its best.
The problem starts as soon as spellbound PNMs file out of each “party,” and the door closes on singing upperclassmen. That same sorority sister who laughed with the hopeful freshman about their mutual cheerleading faux pas in high school tackles job number two: to scramble around the room to remember and rate Jane No. 32 as quickly as she met her. Is she a one, a three or a five?
The next day, many of those fun, even heartfelt conversations turned sour when the group a PNM preferred did not reciprocate to prefer her. Dozens of freshman PNMs heard that painfully bipolar message: “Welcome to Pepperdine. You were cut.” Whoever said rush was a great way to meet people must have overlooked this common detail.
The PNM who on the rush floor didn’t get past the topic of her undecided major or the one who in a moment of awkward silence, panicked and opted to describe in detail that obnoxious overflowing toilet in her suite, probably foresaw the cut. Maybe she is OK with the fact that she is different.
But too often the propaganda plays with hearts. The PNM who felt a connection, who interpreted friendliness as acceptance, who read into the countless smiles and eager introductions, but then was cut, what can she make of it?
Considering that some sororities had to cut more than 50 percent of the girls they saw on any given night based on minute conversations, a PNM may find comfort in the fact that sorority members are not judging the real her. They are judging an edited version of a PNM — the version walking on egg shells in a quick, desperate plea to be liked.
Rush is a confusing process on both sides. The speedy process forces sorority members to make snap and therefore innaccurate judgments based on GPA, first-impressions and (even if not consciously) looks.
Yes, on looks. If someone took a poll to study the candidates who were consistently cut or consistently not cut, would anyone see a pattern? Do the overweight fare as well as the thin? Do the pale-skinned have to prove themselves as much as the tanned? Do Kappas or DGs ever start to look alike to anyone else? If discrimination still happens in the business world’s interview process, why should it not happen during rush?
Pepperdine’s Panhellenic group alters the system every year to make rush as fair as possible. Still, the national groups, in all of their glory, are not about equal opportunity. They are elite, competitive groups that take pride in the ability to be exclusive.
Time after rush rejection is not a time for a PNM to adopt self-deprecation. It is a time to embrace individuality and move on to better things, time to disregard the formal recruitment game and go back to making friends the fun, honest and casual way.
Join more diverse, co-ed groups such as the Black Students Union, Latino Student Association and Campus Ministries.
And if someone still worries about missing out on big sisters, dues and secret rituals, don’t worry, there is still hope. Just dye your hair blonde, practice schmoozing tactics, follow through on those Cosmo tips and better luck next year with the annual butchering process.
10-06-2005