Fraternities work to make freshmen feel like brothers

Saturday marked the beginning of men’s spring rush, but some houses began preparations weeks before.

Men were invited to the kick-off of rush in the Solarium Room of the Indiana Memorial Union to meet men from the 34 fraternities and get more information about each house.

After the first meeting, the events for the rest of rush are left up to each individual house’s discretion because spring rush is much smaller and less formal than fall rush, said Steve Panah, vice president of recruitment for the Interfraternity Council.

“We really like to leave it up to the fraternities,” Panah said. “It’s much better because they have more freedom to do what they want and decide who they want.”

Sophomore Dylan Pure, vice president of recruitment for Pi Kappa Phi, said the pre-rush process starts weeks before the beginning of spring rush, when members of the house give names of men they would like to invite over.

For two to three weeks after the official start of rush, Pure said members invite men to the house for tours, dinners and activities, like basketball, and hand out bids intermittently during the process.

“I like to have guys over to watch sporting events — the Superbowl is a big day for it — to have them come over and meet the brothers,” Pure said. “I try to meet these guys and show them what it’s really like to be in a house because we always go play basketball together, we’re always watching games  together.”

Zach Eppers, recruitment chairman for Phi Delta Theta said while it’s not as common for a greek system to have two rushes during the year, he said he thinks it gives men an opportunity to work on their grades and get adjusted first semester.

“If they decide not to rush in the fall, they have the chance rush in the spring after they have a feel for how school is going to be and can decide whether they want to be in a greek house or not,” Eppers said.