<p>The #1, most fundamental, absolute basic rule of Greek Life: It’s different on every campus. There may be overall similarities - greeks are either involved or they aren’t, greeks either have good grades or they don’t, etc…but in terms of what’s considered “normal” or tradition, or the way things run, every place has a unique circumstance.</p>
<p>As a Greek alumnus, I certainly find the issue of deferred recruitment/rush problematic. Most usually the defense of the practice is based on either improved social network, or more often, rush is put off so that pledging doesn’t “get in the way” of adjusting to college as a freshman. Some other arguments frequently brought forth include the “this way freshmen will get a chance to see what all the houses have to offer and won’t go on stereotype” or the “fraternities and sororities will have improved recruitment because they’ll get people who otherwise wouldn’t have joined a chapter an opportunity to see what the Greeks actually do”.</p>
<p>I find the “adjustment” rationale to complete BS…good chapters with good pledge programs help their members adjust to college by providing guidance and opportunities for growth, with a support network in place to help those who struggle. Now, in terms of socializing, if you already go to a small school, it’s possible that pledging would decrease your likelihood of meeting everyone, but in your big schools, going greek early makes things EASIER, by narrowing the scope a lot. It’s a lot less intimidating to be in a Greek community of 3000 students than a general student population of 25000. </p>
<p>I also think the “loss of stereotypes” argument is awful as well…most students, unless they already know people in the system have zero clue what each house is like when they come to campus anyways…why give them a semester to hear nothing but “ABC’s are the nerds, XYZ’s are the jocks, MNO’s are the sluts, GHI’s are the preps” etc. </p>
<p>Lastly, the “more people will rush” argument is probably the worst of them all…for every kid who decides that they will rush when they weren’t going to before, there’s probably 4 who thought about joining and decided they were “too busy” to pledge…Get students in early, expose them to being busy early on and they’ll stay busy for the rest of their time in school. </p>
<p>It’s been a while, but the NIC has successfully threatened legal action against several state universities on Constitutional grounds that deferred rush represented a violation of the rights of assembly and free association by a government agency (the state-funded university). Of course, such a threat wouldn’t work against private schools, and so they are more likely to have rules against freshmen rushing.</p>