Despite rumors to the contrary, Briana McGlamory, coordinator of fraternity and sorority life, confirmed that there have not been any incidents of dirty or underground rushing reported to Campus and Community Involvement this rush season. However, these recruitment activities have been a topic of discussion amongst many members and potential new members of the Greek community.

“There are so many rules about dirty and underground rushing. I feel like there are a lot of rules about it because obviously [club actives] are not allowed to talk to us about certain things, but a lot of girls don’t know those rules, so they don’t exactly know if they are being dirty rushed or not,” said sophomore Emily Hall, who is taking part in the recuiment process this year. “Sometimes even the girls in the sororities don’t really know the rules of what they are supposed to say or not. I feel like something needs to be made clearer.”

In order to combat the confusion surrounding phrases like “dirty rush” and “underground rush,” CCI made changes to the recruitment schedule. Specifically,  the mandatory Greek 101 session moved up several months.

This year, Greek 101 was held on Wednesday, Oct. 17, and featured speeches from the presidents of the ten active sororities and fraternities, as well as clearer definitions of dirty and underground rushing and their consequences.

While dirty and underground rushing negatively impacts the recruitment experience for potential new members, the practices have even worse effects on the participating organizations, particularly should those organization be any of the four suspended sororities and fraternities — SPURS Sorority, Gamma Chi Delta, Chi Delta Tau and the Bengal Lancers.

McGlamory outlined how CCI expects the suspended organizations to treat recruitment this year.

“Honestly, we don’t expect them [the four suspended organizations] to be interacting with the potential new members,” McGlamory said. “They are working on building from within, so they are working with their own current members, doing service and working on these reinstatement plans, and that’s all that we hope and want them to be doing right now.”

CCI prepared a statement with members of the four suspended organizations in case potential new members or other students ask about the status of their organizations. The statement explains that rushing this organization is not an option for this year, and that these organizations are working on becoming reinstated. The statement also encourages the questioner to take part in the numerous opportunities offered in the current recruitment process.

C.J. Robison, co-chair of fraternity and sorority council, felt his recruitment experience was overwhelmingly positive.

“When I came in as a first year, I was rushing, and I was very thrilled with the overall organized experience. I was given the opportunity on a fair basis to check out every organization that I wanted to, but when dirty or underground rushing comes into play, it kind of sways away from what we as the council and the Greek community have been really striving for, that sense of community,” Robison said.

Although dirty and underground rushing are unfortunate possibilities of the recruitment process, this year’s events have been designed to welcome a strong new community from the 10 organizations on campus and keeps many people looking forward.

“I’m really proud of how rush has gone so far,” Robison said. “I am looking forward to what kind of community we have coming in this spring.”

In addition to providing strong definitions for prohibited behavior during recruitment, an earlier Greek 101 also provided an opportunity for potential new members to familiarize themselves with the active Greek organizations on campus.

In previous years, Greek 101 was held during the week before bid day. According to McGlamory, by this time, most potential new members and organizations had already made their decisions. Holding this event earlier in the recruitment process allows PNMs to hear from all of the organizations before they make their decision.

“We realized that we had this whole semester where, aside from kick-off, we never got to interact with the potential new members,” McGlamory said. “They never got an outlet for learning what was required of them for sorority and fraternity life. Then, when they were held accountable for it, we had some issues. So, we decided to take what was the dessert party, add a little more funding to it, move it to the fall, and meet men and women that night.”