By Benjamin Solomon, Staff Writer
You have probably seen organizations in the campus center with Greek symbols on their tables and sweatshirts. If you are like this author, you might not have known what any of them mean or why they are there.
These are fraternities and sororities, known collectively as Greek life. Some of them are gender-specific while some are coed. UMass Dartmouth has over ten of these organizations.
Luckily, two individuals were able to explain this – Allan Pilch of Zeta Lambda Chi along with his brother Ben Pilch, who graduated last year but was in Theta Delta Chi.
To begin, Ben explained that these organizations are rushing. “Rushing is just the fancy word for recruitment. I don’t know if they are switching more to using the word recruitment.”
Recruitment is more than just signing up though, as Ben continued. “It’s a week long. The fraternity brothers put on events, for free, for anyone who is interested in joining the group.”
“Some of the things they can do is laser tag in the winter, barbeque with other sororities, or bonfires – those are a lot of fun.”
Most of these events are all optional for people who are seeking to join. “One of the more mandatory events is the info night, where you can get an idea what a specific fraternity is about.”
Ben continued: “That usually happens at the end of the week, so you do all of the fun stuff first and the boring stuff last.”
Allan explained that all of Greek life on campus does this, not just their organizations. “Every group has an info night, and certain organizations have a preference night where they rush together.”
“For Zeta, I know we do speed interviews. We do these events all week, and if people are interested they have to go to at least one.”
Greek organizations do not have to accept everyone who wants to join. Rushing is when people are given a chance to show why they should be accepted.
What are people trying to be accepted into? To most, it is a great way to make friends and connections. These groups organize events like dances and charity fund raising.
Rushes are not the only reason to see fraternities and sororities tabling in the campus center.
They are often there to promote fund raising or other events. But in the beginning of each semester, these organizations will be rushing.