Rush Week
Hollywood may have set the stigma simply to sell a few movie tickets.
But for local greek fraternities and sororities, the stereotypes are hard to overcome.
During recruitment week, these organizations have been trying to escape the negative image that movies and television have created.
“We are starting to stress the good things to get away from the ‘Animal House’ image, which, especially in Utah, is such a negative image,” said James Coburn, IFC recruitment vice president.
“We don’t have panty pillow fights. It’s just not like that,” Annie Sonntag, a sorority recruitment counselor said.
Amberly Kingsford, another sorority recruitment officer said that MTV’s “Sorority Life” is not an accurate depiction of what goes on in sororities. There is not nearly as much drama, yelling or fighting with other sorority members, Kingsford said.
“It doesn’t relate at all. That show puts such a bad stereotype on sororities,” she said.
Proof that strides are being made to break from those stereotypes can be found on a bookshelf in the Delta Sigma Phi house. In a direct contrast with the John Belushi toga-wearing, beer-swigging stereotype, the fraternity has an assortment of board games such as Trivial Pursuit, a Star Trek game and Lord of the Rings Risk.
Joining a Greek organization isn’t so much a chance to party, but an opportunity to meet a lot of new and interesting people who are in similar situations, have a dependable support group and provide a place to learn important life skills, Sonntag said.
“Being involved teaches social skills. We learn skills for jobs. Multitasking. You can learn so much here,” Sonntag said.
Throughout the recruitment process, a lot was said about the leadership opportunities that come from joining these groups and the networking opportunities that follow you throughout life. Social aspects took a back seat to stressing the service projects that are provided through each organization.
“There’s been a lot of controversy about the open parties,” Coburn said. “People are always asking what is wrong with the open parties. Well, in the past they just brought us more bad PR than good. So, therefore, we got rid of them. I know everyone wants to hear the bad stuff. But it’s not what the houses want. They want to be recognized for their philanthropy.”
Those philanthropic activities include being involved in a nationwide Make-A-Wish foundation, Girl Scouts, fundraisers for various causes, food drives, blood drives and cleaning the highways.
A small portion of the campus population is involved with a Greek organization, but although the participants may be few, the organizations put on many activities for students including the Halloween carnival, Star Search and an assortment of dances.
“People don’t realize, but a lot of what happens on campus – the frats and sororities put them on,” Sonntag said.
Most Greek organizations require involvement with at least one other campus organization. This is in order to promote involvement with the school and the student population.
Coburn said about the USU fraternities and sororities, “We’re 2 percent of the population, but we are probably the loudest 2 percent.”
There are some schools with much larger Greek populations. Those provide even more people with service projects and networking opportunities.
“We have a 2 percent Greek population, whereas there are some schools that have 70 percent of their population as member of fraternities and sororities. In the South and Southeast there are just huge amounts with hundreds of people. And here we have 20 to 40 people,” said Steve Gray, president of Delta Sigma Phi.
Casey Van Camp, the national western regional representative, attributes the small numbers to a nationwide decline in Greek membership.
“The first time I went through [in 1998] it was just because, hey, free barbecue on the Quad! Sweet, I don’t have any food in the house. So I went out to the Quad and got a free hamburger,” Van Camp said. “There were like 30 or 40 other people with me. And over the last few years it has been getting smaller and smaller. But it’s a nationwide trend.”
Van Camp said that nationally, college students are becoming more and more conservative and fraternities and sororities are still viewed as highly liberal. And although it is a nationwide trend of decline, it is all the more apparent here in Utah.
Although there were some people who came for pizza and cookies and sneaked out before the house tours began, the numbers may be going up this year.
The sororities reported 63 girls participating in the formal recruitment activities. The fraternities couldn’t provide an exact figure, because this is the first year they have participated in year long informal recruitment as well as the formal recruitment week.
For students who missed recruitment week, they can still go to the A-Station Web site, a-station.usu.edu, for contact information of all the Greek organizations and how to become involved during the year.
As for the free food, that only comes once a year.
-mmhintz@cc.usu.edu