Greek Life Celebrates Upperclass Shake Day

Sewanee celebrates its second semester rush for many reasons, mainly because it allows new students to adjust to life on the mountain both academically and socially before deciding whether or not to join a fraternity or sorority. It also allows the students to take the time to carefully chose which greek organization is the best fit. With these ideas in mind, the IFC (Inter-Fraternity Council) and ISC (Inter-Sorority Council) decided to change the upper class rush process. The biggest change of all is the decision to deny participation in upper class rush to transfer students. This decision gives those students a chance to find their place on The Domain before joining a greek organization. The next change was to make upper class rush as close to formal rush as possible. Rushies now have to sign in at four hoses, eliminating the option to "suicide." This new rule makes sure that the fit is not good just for the rushie but also the fraternity or sorority in question. Elizabeth Shortridge, ISC Vice President of Rush states, "The system makes sense in keeping everything standard and we now have an all inclusive rush process, instead of ‘formal rush' and ‘upper class rush'being drastically different." 

IFC and ISC made one last change to the rush process in general. Students who deactive from a fraternity or sorority must wait one rush cycle before they are permitted to rush again. Maureen Russell, ISC President, explains, "While it does sometimes happen that a student realizes that a certain organization is not right for them, we do not want students to spend time testing the waters of several organizations." 

However, with all the changes in rules, upper class rush went very smoothly this year. 28 women and 31 men accepted bids from a sorority or fraternity.