The fraternities have traditionally held a formal fall rush week and spring rush week to attract potential new members.
However, a new “365 Rush” policy seeks to change that by allowing fraternity members to recruit any day of the year.
“The way it works now is basically you can go up to anybody and give them a bid,” said Alpha Tau Omega President Robert Storrow.
Although the new policy would ideally bring about some changes to Belmont Greek life, Tatum Tummins, president of Phi Kappa Tau, said it may not be as drastic as some might think.
“Because of how the past has went and because of how Belmont is structured, the whole change in the 365 recruitment really didn’t change that much for us at all,” said Tummins. “Both of us have a national kind of associated period of pledgeship that takes most of the semester.”
Both presidents expressed the importance of having a unified pledge class and how this policy somewhat clashes with the ideals of and reasons for rush week, including social events.
“We like to bring in guys as one group, and so the whole idea of being able to give one or two guys a bid halfway through the semester kind of defeats the purpose of what we try to do with our new members,” Tummins said.
Storrow agreed.
“Throwing a guy right in the mix of an eight-week pledgeship, he wouldn’t get as much out of it as we would want him to.”
While the policy’s intent goes beyond just recruitment, the fraternities have not utilized this policy yet.
“It gives us flexibility, but it’s a flexibility, as of right now, that we don’t want to use,” said Tummins.
Tummins also suggested that the policy would make more sense within a bigger school or bigger Greek life.
“If Greek life ever grew to where there was five fraternities, maybe this would be a culture that we would change to, where you could just give out a bid,” he said.
The fraternity presidents agreed that spring rush is smoother because after attending Belmont for a semester, students “know what they’re looking for,” Storrow said.
“We get a lot of quality additions to our chapter in the spring,” he said.
In addition, they highlighted the unique opportunities spring rush offers for more personal connections.
“Instead of about 100 guys rushing, you’ve got about 20,” said Tummins.
Both presidents are looking forward to the weeklong spring rush and adding new members to the fraternities.
“Our organization is going to benefit them, and they are going to benefit our organization,” Storrow said. “We’re excited for more people to experience Greek life.”
Spring recruitment began on Monday.
This article was written by Jacqueline Skokna.
EDITOR’S NOTE:
The original edition of this article stated Kevin Reynolds introduced the 365 policy before his departure. However, this information was incorrect. The decision in fact came from the North American Inter-fraternity Council. We apologize for the error.