Rush Week Ends for Hundreds of Students Hoping to Join IFC Community
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Students hoping to join Penn State’s Greek Life community have completed the first step of the long six-week process.
Since the beginning of February, hundreds of students have embarked on the rushing process for various fraternities chartered under the Interfraternity Council (IFC), but today marked the end of rush week. The spring 2020 rush class is the largest since spring 2017.
To modernize the greek system, the IFC made some reforms to the rush process. The most notable change is the requirement for all potential new members to visit at least 12 chapters during the zone day period. The IFC continued existing regulations regarding dry rush events and sent compliance officers, in cohorts with Penn State’s Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life, to verify this.
During the rush process, students are invited to attend events at various houses by each fraternity’s rush chair. Throughout the week, each fraternity rush committee begins the selection process by voting to keep members on the roster for future events.
This Monday, students received bids during bid extension night, and, if offered a bid, they had two days to go to the IFC’s office in the HUB to accept it. The bid acceptance period ended at 5 p.m. Wednesday, meaning that all potential new members had to formally accept their bid and will now enter the pledging process.
Kevin McKenna, a freshman student, recently accepted a bid at Phi Kappa Theta. He reflected on his rush week experience.
“It was a fun week, it was a good thing to be apart of, and I’m happy I got a bid at the end,” McKenna said.
Working with the university, the IFC made changes to the pledging process, which is the next step for the potential new members. The IFC shortened the process from six to four weeks, a period of time that essentially begins now. After pledging, potential new members will be initiated into their respective fraternities.
Josh Portney is a freshman studying broadcast journalism. To contact him, email jxp776@psu.edu.
