IFC lays out new procedures for fraternity rush

Fraternities will provide guides to advise students in the rush process. In an effort to decrease recruiting pressures on its future brothers and reduce competition among its 31 fraternities, the InterFraternity Council unanimously passed a proposal last night that will revamp its rush process. The major change to next year's rush process will include the addition of rush guides, or counselors, to a system that will be loosely modeled after Emory University's Greek rush. This spring, each fraternity chapter will have the opportunity to nominate one rush guide who will be paired with another guide from a traditionally dissimilar house in counseling groups of about 40 prospective pledges through the two-week rush process. IFC Vice President for Rush Matt Chait called the new support system "a little experimental" but said he hopes it will make the system as a whole more attractive to new members. The new IFC system differs from the Panhellenic Council's rush process in that the IFC rush counselors play the sole role of acting as peer advisors and do not walk the rushees around to fraternity houses. Also, unlike the Panhel rho chis, or rush counselors, IFC rush counselors will not hide their fraternity affiliations from rushees. "The underlying theory behind these guides is total honesty [with prospective pledges]," said Chait, explaining why the advisors will not disaffiliate from their fraternities. IFC President and Tau Epsilon Phi brother Mark Metzl, a College junior, said the purpose of the modification is "to alleviate the pressure of a short rush spring schedule and provide a source of peer support." Chait, a Phi Kappa Sigma brother and College junior, added that while in the past rushees have relied on upperclassman to address their concerns, the IFC will now provide every rushee with that resource. A committee composed of IFC Executive Board members and Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs officials will select rush guides this semester. Last night's proposal passed by the presidents of each IFC chapter included other rush policy revisions that will take effect this fall. All prospective rushees will now be required to attend one of several fall workshops after they pay the unchanged $10 rush registration fee. And the IFC will expand the previously informal fall showcasing to include two scheduled evening events, one in October and one in November. Houses within close proximity -- on the eastern side of Locust Walk, the western side of Locust Walk, Spruce Street and Walnut Street -- will separately host rushees on the given nights. The system will also reinstitute a rush brochure. Each chapter will have its own page complete with house photographs in the publication.

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