Fraternities recruit new brothers recruits attend fall rush kick off event

Prospective recruits gathered in Dunn Meadow on Monday to kick off the fraternity recruitment process.

All 32 chapters of IU’s Interfraternity Council set up tables displaying their fraternity flags, Little 500 trophies and other memorabilia hoping to impress their chapters’ new members.

“(It’s) the very first step in the recruitment process,” said Stephen Panah, Interfraternity Council’s vice president of recruitment. The event was originally scheduled for Sunday but moved because of threat of inclement weather. “Basically, it’s a pretty informal event where every freshman gets to see every single chapter ... to see which chapter is the right fit for them,” he said.

Freshman Joseph Oakley approached the sign-in table, where he scrawled his personal information alongside hundreds of names of other prospective recruits
.
“None of my family has really (participated in) any greek life except for my older brother, who is a Fiji (Phi Gamma Delta) at Purdue,” Oakley said. “When he went into it, he knew nothing about it, like me, and now it’s a major part of his life,” Oakley said. “That’s what kind of made me interested in it.”

Oakley said he had done a little research about the fraternities across campus, and the first table he visited was Sigma Phi Epsilon, the fraternity with the highest GPA on campus.

He shook hands with junior Sig Ep member Alec Peterson, introducing himself and receiving information about the fraternity. They talked for a while and then parted ways, a process he repeated at five tables before the end of the day. The event, Oakley said, was about getting his name out and meeting people.

“It was a little bit hectic ... but I got a little taste of what each fraternity had to offer,” he said.

Some fraternities, including Theta Chi, have been through the kickoff process many times before. Theta Chi’s roots at IU date back to 1921. The fraternity’s rush chairman, junior Andrew Weinert, said he expected about 300 prospective recruits to stop by and introduce themselves. From those 300, the fraternity would call back 80 to 100,
he said.

“You try and remember them when you meet them, but it’s tough because you meet so many kids,” Weinert said. “You kind of go off memory, and it’s kind of just luck of the draw.”

Delta Chi’s secretary, sophomore Jacob Kuczmanski, said at last year’s rush kickoff event, Delta Chi had 250 freshmen interested in rushing and was expecting about the same number this year. He said from there they would narrow it down to 100 or 150 during the next week.

“We’re going to have rush events throughout the week, just like poker nights or pizza nights, or have them over to watch a football game or something,” Kuczmanski said. “We’ll get to know the kids, and if we like them, and they like us, and it’s a good match, then we’ll keep inviting them back and hopefully get them involved.”

Other fraternities were new to the IFC, including Beta Sigma Psi and Sigma Phi Beta.
Beta Sigma Psi was chartered last year and is considered the National Lutheran Fraternity.

Sigma Phi Beta is beginning its first semester as a chapter and is the first queer and allied fraternity in the eastern part of the United States, said junior Jeremy O’Neal, membership chairman of Sigma Phi Beta.

“We allow anyone who identifies as male, so including transgendered, bisexual and gay men,” O’Neal said. “We’re kind of making history at IU, as well, because we’re the first of its kind.”

IFC members initially expected a turnout of 1,200 to 1,500 students for Sunday’s event but lowered the expectation after the event was delayed. However, with 1,354 students in attendance, the kickoff went really well, Panah said.

“I was impressed by the turnout, especially with the rain delay yesterday,” he said. “We were able to educate a lot of freshmen about a lot of different houses and greek life.”