Lauren Textor

For charitable - and hungry - Law students, the idea is simple: Round up as many friends as possible and go out to eat. The more friends you bring and the more food you eat, the better. These steps are the basic requirements for Dining for Change, a group launched earlier this month by two first-year Law students, Madhu Muthukumar and Dimitri Islam.

The deadline for initiating new members into fraternities is today, but some fraternities will be running into overtime - with or without official permission. Under Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs regulations, pledging for both fraternities and sororities is supposed to last six weeks, after which pledges must be officially initiated.

Chi Omega has been under an internal investigation since last week regarding events that took place during pledging. "Chi Omega did experience some small issues and inappropriate behavior during their new-member education process by a couple of individuals," Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs director Scott Reikofski said.

From attending crush parties to throwing charity events, participating in Greek life can certainly take up a chunk of time. But that's not stopping many participants from maintaining high grade-point averages - some even higher than non-Greek members. More than half of the Greek organizations on campus maintain GPAs higher than the undergraduate average, said Scott Reikofski, director of the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs.

The doorbell was set to the tune of the Star Spangled Banner. As it rang through the whole house, the fraternity brothers stopped for a moment, grinning. "Listen to that!" Engineering sophomore Alex Numann said. "We're hearing America," College junior Matt Fiedler exclaimed.

Signs welcoming girls who are "too hot to handle" are popping up on dorm-room doors. But these signs, accompanied by streamers and balloons, are showing up a little late, posted for women who did not join a sorority during formal recruitment, which officially ended with Bid Night on Jan.

Forty-seven fewer students have been invited to join fraternities, compared to last year. Since Bid Night earlier this week, 362 men have decided to join one of the many campus brotherhoods, and more may be on the way. Of the 514 bids that were offered earlier this week, 57 were declined, and 95 students have until noon on Friday to make a decision.

Fraternity rush may have ended last week, but several chapter houses will continue to pay for their grand-scale events for the rest of the semester. Some chapter heads have blown up to a third of their semester budget on making sure they lure in prospective brothers during this year's rush.

Pretty soon, the time you whittle away on computer games could help you whittle your way into a career. University of Wisconsin professor David Shaffer is working on computer games that he says will teach players to succeed in today's job world by simulating real-life careers in urban development, political campaigning and journalism.

Who knew that hanging out with girls could be so stressful? College freshman "Jane," for one, did not. Jane has spent the last two weeks walking around in heels - for four hours straight, at times - bedecked in black pants and fancy dress shirts in order to impress the sisters of the sororities that she is rushing.