You know who they are. They can be seen on campus going to class, at the intramural fields playing sports, during Homecoming participating in every event, at sporting events showing their school pride or out in the community proudly doing philanthropy work.
You know who they are because you see the letters they wear. However, unless you are on the inside, you likely don’t really know who they are. They are the fraternity men of East Tennessee State University and they are currently looking to improve their enrollment.
Fraternity rush begins officially Sunday, Sept. 10, but rush has been going on all summer.
The Interfraternity Council co-hosted a Greek information reception at the orientations this summer to inform potential new members of the fraternity system at ETSU and recruit.
“We’ve had respectable numbers at the orientation receptions, but all fraternities are going to need to step it up in the next few weeks.” Brett Baker, Interfraternity Council president, said. “All of our chapters can go out on campus and to the dorms and really recruit people into the system, we can have an impressive number of men go through rush.”
All seven fraternity chapters will be out working to find suitable recruits. Then it is simply a matter of convincing the potential new member (that is, if they even need convincing) that fraternity life is right for them. The current fraternity members need only to offer up personal experience as their selling points.
“For me, fraternity life has opened so many different doors socially and academically,” Ryan Desmond, a current fraternity member said. “The people I’ve met, all of the different activities that I’ve become involved in and even the jobs that I have are mainly through the contacts and experiences I’ve gained from being in a fraternity.”
“If someone is in the least bit interested, I would encourage them to at least try it out,” Ryan Nash, Interfraternity Council Recruitment chair, said. “If a man goes through rush, then he’ll more than likely know if fraternity life is for him and even what fraternity is right for him.”
There are currently seven fraternity chapters at ETSU: Kappa Sigma, Lambda Chi Alpha, Pi Kappa Alpha, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Sigma Nu, Sigma Phi Epsilon, and Sigma Chi.
Though every chapter operates on many of the same basic principles such as unity and brotherhood, each chapter is unique. The rush process gives each potential new member the opportunity to meet and get to know the men of each chapter as well as decide if they would like to sign with one of the fraternity chapters.
“The most important thing I could say would be for a guy who is even slightly interested in fraternity life to at least go through rush and see what it’s all about,” Baker said.
“Everything is planned out for them, all they have to do is go to these places and then figure out if they belong to one of these chapters. Being in a fraternity has really benefited me and so many other guys I know. It’s just one of those things that when you see it, you just know.”
The deadline for applications is 6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 10. Rush lasts from then until noon Friday, Sept. 15. Actual activities for rush are Monday through Thursday, 5-11p.m.
For more information contact Gary Carver or Joy Fulkerson at gogreek@etsu.edu.

Author