Culver-Stockton College has a lot to offer its students, and each year the staff and faculty do their best to make sure more opportunities to get involved arrive. Whether it be refining and creating impactful Academic Cultural Events (A.C.E) or providing athletes with fun ways to go outside their preferred sports and creating intermural leagues, the Culver-Stockton campus has an endless number of ways to become involved and grow outside of one’s comfort zone. Many opportunities come and go, however, the Fraternities and Sororities on campus have been around since 1939, and to this day are still striving to grow and connect with the community. 

Every year, each house reaches out to their fellow students and extends invitations, or “bids”, to join that house, hoping, as previously mentioned, to grow as a chapter and deepen their roots on “The Hill”. Once a bid is formally accepted by the candidate, they then go through the process of becoming a member of whatever Greek house they’ve chosen. This entire process is known as “rush” and every chapter on campus participates, although, how they go about presenting themselves to potential members is completely up to the chapter. Though, the one principle most of the Greek community can agree on is searching for quality potential members rather than quantity.

 “Cultures are always going to change and new members always going to change, and new members always add good and sometimes bad things, but a good class is one that cares about the house and the organization.” -Weinberg 

While each house has their own recruitment quotas to fill, each house also has their own criteria for quality members. The search for hidden gems amongst the student body is a focal point of every house’s recruitment, many Greeks find it hard to convince potential members to find interest in Greek life. Senior, Brie Krogman, who is also Recruitment Chair of Chi Omega stated, “I think it can be difficult to find quality members sometimes because a lot of girls already have their minds made up that they do not want to rush because of sports or have their minds set already on a specific house.”  Many of the Greek organizations do not wish for their fellow students to feel pressured to join a house, however they do wish to set the record straight and shine light on some of the misconceptions regarding rushing. The main issue being that while the organizations do require commitment and time, they realize students are here for more than just Greek life. In fact, Senior, Austin Jones, member of Lambda Chi Alpha, stated “Lambda, just like any other organization on campus, is a student first, athletes second, fraternity brother third, kind of house. We love our house, but most of us are athletes too. We have responsibilities.”

As the semester comes to an end so does the opportunity to join Greek life during the fall season. However, as the new Greeks arrive so does the opportunity to rush in the spring. The Greeks encourage you to participate in their open houses and rush events, because to some, like Sophomore Member of Tau Kappa Epsilon, Rylan Serna, his house is like a “…Home away from home.”