|
Killarney--yes, you remembered correctly. I grew up right near my campus and spent many years at KSU with my mom when she was a student. I did some "investigating" before I started my freshman year and I went into rush knowing that I was only interested in 3 of the 7 sororities. I don't think that there is anything wrong with this.....as long as you get accurate info. I was lucky in that the things that I heard prior to starting school were pretty close to the truth, plus I had seen a lot of the members walking around in their letters and had gotten to make casual acquaintances from both the Kent and Akron sororities over the years.
My only problem with the way NPC rush is handled is that all of the restrictions make it very difficult for the chapters and rushees to see and know each other well enough to make an educated choice. I feel that if things were more relaxed and girls were able to approach the chapters they were interested in everyone would come to the rush parties and selection sessions much better equipped to make decisions. Could this offer an advantage to the more outgoing rushees? Sure. But that's real life. If you want something you have to take your opportunities and make the most of them. The whole sorority experience is supposed to help prepare you for life, and part of that is learning to overcome your shyness. Could this offer an advantage to the more "popular" chapters? Possibly, in that a lot of rushee effort and attention would most likely be aimed towards those chapters over others. But the "popular" chapters would still be restricted to the same quota as all the others, and just because more girls are interested in them does not mean that they would be interested in all of those girls.
I thought it was difficult enough to be realistic and cut through the red tape of my own chapter's rush rules and selection process. I am sure that most of the other NPC groups use a similar procedure, and it doesn't need to be made more restrictive by NPC rush rules. As it is, sometimes it would be just as effective to put names in a hat and draw.
"Letter pimps" are a problem, often for the strongest chapters. The "weaker" chapters may complain that things are unequal and unfair, but let me tell you, even the strongest chapter is affected in a negative way by Letter Pimps. We had our share of these and they were dead weight, plain and simple. We had a theory that a chapter of 70 really dedicated, fantastic sisters was far preferable to a chapter of 100 where 30 of them were dead weight and thus caused problems with participation numbers, etc. So we found ways to "weed out" the problem children. But it wasn't always easy. It seems to me that often the so-called "weaker chapters" have stronger membership in terms of dedication and purer motivation for being there.
I wish it could be fair for everyone. I wish that everyone's dream could come true with rush. But it doesn't. Even when everything seems perfect and a girl breezes through and gets her first choice, sometimes things just don't work out and she isn't happy. We don't always know what is best for us. Unfortunately we do not live in a world which guarantees our happiness at all times. But I think rush is a very realistic microcosm of society as a whole, and it acheives it purpose--to help prepare and equip these girls for what they are going to face in life after college.
|
