Stings of Greek Life rejection. Difficulty of the rushing process. Shallow membership criteria. Social hierarchies. This is what the article written by an anonymous author discussed in the Op/Ed section of The Chronicle two weeks ago. As a member of the Recruitment planning committee for my sorority for multiple semesters, I quite honestly found it humorous to read this article. The author was clearly misinformed because they hardly had any of their facts straight.

I am mostly talking about sororities because that is where I have the most experience, obviously. For 2009, the cumulative GPA requirement for a potential new member to take part in the Panhellenic rushing process is a 2.5. Now that is about a C average. According to the Greek Recruitment Handbook, the overall GPA to participate in IFC Recruitment is a 2.25, about a C- average. In order to take part in rush, each potential who signs up must have this average. If they do not have this average, then they will not be able to go through Recruitment. That is the only way that they will not be offered a bid to ANY sorority. If they don’t have the average this semester, then they can try again in the fall for fraternities and in the spring for sororities.

I found it interesting to read this author’s statement that “only half the rushers ever get to don the letters.” For Panhellenic Recruitment this semester, 169 women signed up online to take part in rush. 140 women attended the first round. Out of these 140 women, 28 women did not attend the second round. This could have been for many reasons, many of them being financial or personal reasons. 112 women received bids. 36 went to Alpha Chi Omega, 38 to Kappa Alpha Theta and 38 to Phi Sigma Sigma. Therefore, 100 percent of women who went through the entire process of Recruitment received a bid to a sorority. Possibly not the sorority they specifically wanted, but at least one. It is their choice on Bid Day to decide whether or not they wish to accept the bid from the offering sorority.

In response to the writer’s comment that they think the membership criteria are shallow, I would love to know what membership criteria they are looking at. The Greeks pride themselves on leadership, loyalty, honesty, academics and selflessness. Each sorority and fraternity has a certain number of criteria that during Recruitment, they look for in each potential new member to see if they fulfill them. The criteria are even posted on each organization’s webpage for the potential new members to view.

It is just a stereotype that every single Greek organization around the nation has to deal with that we only like the “good-looking, smart, social jocks.” I know for me personally, I hope to God that my sorority didn’t choose me just because of the color of my hair or the fact that I own a pair of American Eagle jeans. I’m just a girl trying to better my leadership skills and make some long-lasting friendships. It’s interesting that the writer also makes the comment that QU Greeks only rushed to affirm their social status and popularity. I thought that coming to college meant that there was no more “popular” crowd. I know I certainly didn’t rush because I wanted to remind myself that I was popular at college. Especially since the author makes the point that only 2.5 percent of students at QU are part of Greek Life, it seems hard to believe that we consider ourselves to be better than our peers when we are so small compared to them.

It’s also interesting to hear that the school administration does not want anymore Greek Life to be added to the University because we are adding two sororities and a fraternity for next fall. I find it very hard to believe an administrator would say that after the decision had already been made to add on three new ones. Maybe the newest additions to Greek Life can fulfill your wishes of having “less exclusion” and the achievement of yours and others’ social goals.

In all, I don’t believe that this writer was completely inane in their writing of this article. They do make a point at the end to talk about the benefits of Greek Life and state that they are a proponent for adding more Greek Life to the University. But just so you know, you might want to check your facts before bashing our “exclusivity.”