Emory's entry: "stupidest IFC policy" contest

[hoosier]

(Why would the Emory IFC prevent ZBT from telling how many newbies they have?)


ZBT doubles membership in recruitment


By David Marek
Staff Writer
February 15, 2005


On any given weekend, College freshman Miller Kreider, a Libertarian and aikido practitioner, can be found socializing at the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity’s off-campus house with College freshman Christopher Paul, a guitar player who patented his own design for a pen before coming to Emory. Standing beside them, College freshman Benjamin Zalusky, a spikey-haired punk-rocker, and clean-cut College freshman Gaurav Vohra exchange stories about high school.

These four students represent a microcosm of ZBT’s new brothers. During this past recruitment period, ZBT welcomed a wide array of new members and more than doubled its size.

Although the official number of new members could not be released in accordance with Interfraternity Council policy, College junior and Recruitment Chair Jonathan Schwartz labeled this the most lucrative recruitment in ZBT’s nine years as part of Emory’s Greek community.

[SDTSarah]

While I can't speak for the IFC policy, IFC and ISC typically do not release numbers. And in a way, I kind of understand. It's hard to read that your fraternity got 2 pledges, while everyone else got 25. Especially when you're trying to rebuild a fraternity, you have less than 10 members, and you don't have a house...it can become disheartening. (By the way, ZBT does have more than 10 members, but there was a point when they did not.)

While I understand everyone (including me) is super-curious about recruitment results, I also know that fraternity recruitment did not go as well as hoped this year. Numbers in general were down, and I know of at least one traditionally strong fraternity that did not do well. Perhaps the policy is a bit stupid, but I think it's a sign of a movement on IFC's part to be more "interfraternal."

Personally, I'm incredibly proud of ZBT. They reformed at Emory a few years ago, and they have an amazing brotherhood. I think the rest of the article is actually way more interesting:


“This was the most successful recruitment year ever, not just in terms of numbers but in the quality of the new members,” Schwartz said.

Previously, ZBT had heavily relied on “rolling rush,” a process in which sophomores, juniors and seniors are recruited throughout the school year and freshmen during the latter part of second semester, according to former ZBT President Matthew Bradford (’04B).

“Rolling rush” often resulted in new upperclassman members only — a factor that prevented ZBT from establishing a strong underclassmen base, Bradford said.

Bradford commented that with a large underclassman base, the fraternity now had much more potential to grow and improve.

College sophomore and ZBT treasurer Joel Frankel said he was not surprised by the number of students that accepted bids to ZBT this year.

“This year’s numbers were a product of an organized rush,” Frankel said.

According to Bradford, ZBT kept in contact with freshmen who expressed interest in the fraternity throughout the first semester, inviting them to socialize with older brothers. With an established core of potential members, ZBT could spendmore time during official recruitment with the freshmen that were less familiar with the fraternity.

Frankel believes that the new members were initially attracted to ZBT’s small size and the strong bonds formed between members.

“We’re a tight-knit brotherhood,” Frankel said. “You can always call up a brother and hang out.”

New ZBT member College freshman Sean Smiley said he felt ZBT’s small community embodied what Greek life was supposed to be.

“I decided to join ZBT because fraternities, to me, are about brotherhood, and I felt I got the closest with my brothers in a smaller fraternity,” Smiley said.

New members of ZBT do not pledge — a factor Bradford believes dramatically affects the fraternity’s atmosphere. Forty-eight hours after accepting their bids, new ZBT members become official ZBT brothers.

The immediate initiation allows new ZBT members to pursue management aspects of the fraternity from the beginning, according to Bradford, who said that without pledging, new members of the fraternity are on “equal footing” with other members of the fraternity.

By taking these positions in the fraternity, the new members hope to gain more recognition for the fraternity on the campus.

“The reason why we joined ZBT is because we saw a lot of potential in it,” Vohra said. “We saw that a lot of people didn’t know what ZBT was, so we thought it would be cool to be able to join a frat and make it the best frat on campus.”

This year’s success has prompted much debate about the future of the fraternity — specifically about the possibility of becoming an on-campus fraternity.

“We’re kind of in a loose debate on whether or not we should go on campus or not,” Bradford said.

Schwartz said the fraternity hopes to become more active in philanthropic activities, schedule more events and make the fraternity better known on the Emory campus.

[hoosier]

As I read the story, it said the IFC has a policy of not releasing numbers. Maybe ZBT is embarassed, and just used the IFC as an excuse.

Jody Powell, Jimmy Carter's press secy. always said "bad news does not improve with age".

If rush results are poor, it's not something to brag about, but hiding them does nobody any good. If they are real bad, and some of the active alumni realize it, there could be some pressure applied to return to fall rush (from the current deferred) or relax some rules. Bad results, if repeated, are further proof that deferred fraternity rush is a chapter killer.

I seem to remember that rush results last year were also down from 2003.

The results were in the Wheel in 2003 and 2004.

[33girl]

Originally posted by hoosier
As I read the story, it said the IFC has a policy of not releasing numbers. Maybe ZBT is embarassed, and just used the IFC as an excuse.

they DOUBLED THEIR SIZE PLUS. Why would they be embarrassed about that?

[SDTSarah]

I can't answer for IFC, and I know that they have posted results before. They did not this yearISC never posts individual chapter results. Trust me, ZBT is not embarassed.

The problem is that you have things, like the Power Polls (found in every Friday edition of the Wheel), that rip chapters apart. They've toned things down in the past months, but they used to be really bad. Now the Power Polls mostly consist of things like "Suzy in XYZ sleeps around. Ha ha ha. That's funny."

My guess is that ISC and IFC are trying to present a kind of unified, Greek-positive front.

And trust me, concerned alums will always have access to rush numbers. Take a look at the rush results...for example, ADPis across the country knew that the Emory chapter made quota before anyone from Emory posted about it.

While I agree that deferred rush has its disadvantages, it's highly unlikely that Emory will return to fall rush. Though fraternity numbers have decreased, sorority numbers have increased.

[33girl]

Originally posted by SDTSarah
The problem is that you have things, like the Power Polls (found in every Friday edition of the Wheel), that rip chapters apart. They've toned things down in the past months, but they used to be really bad. Now the Power Polls mostly consist of things like "Suzy in XYZ sleeps around. Ha ha ha. That's funny."

Is this an independent paper or is it affiliated with the school? I'd hate to think that student activity fees are going to support ridiculous garbage like that. I'm sure parents would not be too happy about it either.

[Rudey]

Originally posted by 33girl
they DOUBLED THEIR SIZE PLUS. Why would they be embarrassed about that?

If you have 2 guys and become 4, it is embarassing. But I'm just playing devil's advocate.

-Rudey

[gpb1874]

think of it this way too.....numbers do not make the chapter. of course you want strong numbers in order to keep the chapter going, but size shouldn't be the issue. what they accomplish should be the issue. i have small groups at my campus who do great things and larger ones who don't do much. if the chapter is trying to rebuild or is new, it could look bad on them that their numbers are smaller when it has nothing to do with their quality.

i actually wish some of the NPC groups would back off the numbers game a little. there are ups and downs all the time. as long as the chapter is doing well overall and getting quality members, i don't think there should be a problem. now, if all the chapters are doing great and XYZ is not, the chapter needs an evaluation of their recruitment training/prep and their activities.

just my 2 cents