University of Virginia Library

Rushing To A Decision

The yearly autumnal rite of fraternity rush
began. Tuesday night and will be the major
concern of several thousand fraternity men
and first-year rushees for the next eight
weeks.

The pressure will be especially great on the
first-year men, many of whom have only
the foggiest idea of what the fraternity system
is all about or what the process of
rush entails.

Much of this knowledge must come
from first-hand experience, but we should
like to offer a few observations.

Behind all the pleasantries of drinking
beer at smokers and making new friends,
rush is basically a selling proposition. The
fraternity is trying to sell the rushee on its
members and physical plant; and the rushee,
in turn, is trying to sell himself as a
"clubable man," to use Dr. Johnson's apt
phrase, to the fraternity.

If you are not a "clubable man," or if
you cannot afford membership in a fraternity
because of finances or a 24-hour
devotion to your books, then rush may be
a waste of time for you.

Otherwise, it will repay you well to
participate in the round of parties, meals
and smokers and possibly pledge a house.

Although the fraternity system does not
enjoy quite the monopoly on non-academic
life at the University it once did, there are
persuasive reasons for joining a house. There
is a definite social void in Charlottesville
that the fraternities fill. They offer a place
to take meals and live among people whose
company you enjoy, and they provide the
nurturing ground for some of the best
friendships you're likely to make at the
University.

There has been a lot of nonsense among
the less tradition-minded about the anti intellectuality
of fraternities. It has been
our experience that the students on Rugby
Road and Mad Lane are no more or no
less intellectually oriented than those on
Alderman Road. A person who will drink
or go down the road several week nights
will do so whether he's in a fraternity or
not.

We certainly don't want to insinuate that
independents lead an unfulfilled life around
the University; nothing could be more
wrong. And we don't pretend that fraternity
life is entirely a rosy one where tweed-coated
gentlemen sip juleps on the veranda.
We just hope that many first-year men do
rush, and that they do so with an open
mind.

Two other observations:

The dormitory counselors have a great
responsibility in advising first-year men
about fraternities. We hope they do so, as
most have done in the past, with candor
and impartiality. We hope we don't hear
of another counselor like the one last year
who passed around a copy of the IFC's
rush booklet with his written remarks—
mostly disparaging, except for his own house
—about each fraternity.

Second, it was appalling to many fraternity
members who visited the dorms Tuesday
night how many first-year men preferred
T-shirts or worse to dress shirts and
ties and how many lacked even the courtesy
to offer their visitors a seat. Whatever they
thought of fraternities, it was bad manners
to be so careless in receiving visitors they
knew were coming and who were inviting
them to visit in return.