University of Virginia Library

Onion Dip

This requires that I give up
several evenings to the house and go
over to cat onion dip and potato
chips while I listen to the life
history of all the rushees. From
these few meetings I get something
of a feeling about the guy and
whether or not he would fit into
our brotherhood.

Fraternity life is a very personal
thing and cannot be described in an
informal discussion. It must be
lived to be understood. To many it
doesn't and can't appeal. To some
of us it means a great deal and an
opportunity not to be found
outside of it. It is much more than
eating with friends or a party. No
one can understand it unless they are
exposed to it. Rush was designed to
offer a small glimpse and that is just
what it does. The fraternities have
recently come under attack from
many segments of the university.
This has required a rebuttal to the
attacks. Both the attacks and the
rebuttals have been very shallow.
Charges have been leveled that
would appear quite humorous they
had not been made in earnest.
Houses are thought of as places for
perverted people to collect. There
could be no better place for like
minds to congregate in the same
gutter. Those who make the attacks
are called social outcasts who
couldn't make it into a fraternity
even if they rushed (it must be
added that many did and weren't
accepted). A true feeling of hate
grows up between the fraternity
followers and their critics.