Informal Greek recruitment began last week in the first year that male athletes were not allowed to rush a fraternity in the spring of their freshman year and instead were told by their coaches to wait until sophomore year.
This decision was made because coaches want incoming freshman to have a strong start, academically.
“We don’t want them to get off on the wrong foot,” Head Coach of the men’s baseball Joe Reina said. “The soccer, baseball and football teams are taking the same stance on this issue-they’re more concerned with allowing the freshmen get a strong academic start and not overload themselves. The rush process coincides with the baseball season, which causes a problem. This is the first year we have done this.”
Some students are not very happy about the change.
“I don’t really think it was fair because rush hasn’t really affected students in previous years, so why start now,” sophomore Devin Shane said. “I do think my coaches made a good decision, though, because after spending a whole season with the baseball team, you realize that the team is kind of like a fraternity.”
Continuing, he said, “At first it seems like you only have the option of your sport or pledging, but it only got pushed back one semester so it’s not that big of a deal.”
Current fraternity brothers have conveyed the same message. Although they got less people to join in the spring, overall their numbers have stayed the same because more sophomores have shown interest this fall.
“We always get a lot of guys on the football team, so this definitely hurt us in the spring,” Delta Kappa Epsilon Recruitment Chair Brian Duffy said. “We had to struggle to get three [new members] but now we have had 30 rushes and 21 of them are sophomore football guys. I don’t think it has really deferred anyone who was going to rush last year, they just waited a semester.”
The only complication Duffy complains about is that when men rush in the fall, they miss a year of living in the fraternity house, and therefore the fraternity misses a year of dues that the brothers pay for housing.
Sophomore Peter McEneaney is currently rushing because his baseball coach would not let him rush last year.
“Our coaches told us that in the past some of the baseball players pledged during the season and it just did not work out,” McEneaney said. “There was no time to dedicate to the sport with pledging.”
Continuing, he said, “[They also said] the purpose of not allowing freshman to rush is to allow them to experience the school as freshman, then make an educated decision sophomore year when you know everyone and know the deal instead of being suckered in as freshman.”
Although reactions have been mixed about this decision, the coaches feel it is the right choice and plan to continue the policy in the future.
“So far the outcome has been positive. We’ve had the highest GPA from our freshmen class,” Reina said.
