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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 22, 1985)
-9- without A&M’s recognition By TRICIA PARKER Stajf'li'riter Once upon a time, people would have called Tony Moskal a very brave man. Or a very' foolish one. He lives in the fier cest frat-fighting fortress of them all, Davis-Gary Hall, where the shirts say' “No Frats” and the residents sav the same. But tilings have changed in D.G. Three or four years ago, Moskal might have been run out of the building. But today, undaunted by the dorm's repu tation, the fearless Moskal re mains on the fourth floor and has become a Fiji. “It's not any different from any other dorm, to tell you the truth,” Moskal says. “I think it’s fun.” And contrary' to expectations about life in the enemy head quarters, Moskal says no one really bothers him about his fraternity membership. “They made jokes about it at first,” he says. “There’s only a few of the real red asses that hassle you about it.” Fraternities have been at A&>M since 1973 when Sigma Phi Epsilon was colonized. Other fraternities were quick to follow and today there are 18 national fraternities at A&M. The'fraternities range in size generally open to the public, the frats have a problem in de termining which men are in terested in joining their frat and which are interested in drinking their beer. “If we went by the people at our parties, it would be a whole different story',” he say's. Guinto says he would place the number of actual rushees for this spring at about 1,000, although only 300 or so pledged a fraternity'. Many are put off because they think it costs too much to be a mem ber. It’s not unheard of at other schools for fraternities to run financial checks on rushees. But fraternities are not finan- bution of name tags to make things more official. Ten of the 18 fraternities ei ther rent ° r have bou g ht houses but they are widely scattered either deep in north Brvan or far south of campus. Edwards says there are plans in the works to create a frater nity row which would central ize the fraternities and hope fully provide uni tv. I.F.C. is considering two areas: a plot at the corner of 1'Vellborn and Holliman and one at Southwest Parkway and Welsh. Sororities have less of a prob lem with unity'' say's Heidi Sei fert, president of the Panhelle- nic Conference. Panhellenic, mam Many are put off because they think it- costs too much to be a member, ifs not un heard of at other schools for fraternities to run financial checks on rushees. But frater nities are not financially exclusive at A&M, Edwards says. “We could care less about what your fa ther does because he’s not going to be here,” he says. “Dues for the fiats range from about $35-$60 per month. ” from about 120 members for five of the largest down to 13 ’ members for the smallest, says Mark Edwards, president of the Interfraternity Council, the governing body of the organi zations. Edwards, a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, esti mates that over 1,500 men are involved in fraternities at A&M. George Lucas, assistant pro fessor of marketing and alumni advisor to I.F.C. says that possibly' because of the number of people involved, Greek organizations are be coming more accepted. “I’d say' there’s a trend to ward neutrality',” he say's. “I wouldn't say there was a posi tive attitude but it’s moving more that direction.” And Edwards agrees. “When I was a freshman or sophomore, people would look at you like it was some kind of disease or something but it’s not like that now,” he says. I.F.C. can only guess at the number of men who go through fraternity' rush be cause of the system used. Fra ternities traditionally attract members by throwing parties, says David Guinto, who is vice- president of I.F.C. as well as president of his fraternity. Rushees aren’t registered in any way and since parties are dally exclusive at A&dVl, Ed wards says. “We could care less about what your father does because he’s not going to be here,” he says. “Dues for the frats range from about $35-60 per month.” Jay Blinderman, who is run ning for president of the I.F.C., doesn't think A£pM wall see an increase in the number of fra ternities, just an increase in the size of present chapters. “Eighteen fraternities is too many forA&M,' 7 he says. “I ex pect in five years we’ll see the number go dowm to about 12.” Lucas says the attitude of I.F.C. is to try to keep the num ber of houses constant. “1 think there’s some con cern that they maintain the number of chapters but make them all stronger,” he says. Stronger chapters means a stronger I.F.C., Edw'ards says. One goal of a strong and uni fied I.F.C. is to work to make fraternity' rush more orga nized. Right now, he says, the I.F.C. holds an information ses sion every year to tell prospec tive rushees about fraternities. Eventually he says he’d like to extend the sessions to include formal registration and distri- the governing body' for the 10 recognized sororities, meets twice a month to discuss prob lems ranging from the Greek image on campus to infrac tions of rush rules. Nine of the ten sororities al ready have a home in the sub urbs, located on Athens Drive or Olvmpia Way. Seifert says the sorority system’s tremen dous growth in both size and strength allowed the houses to be built. In the spring of 1975, the first five sororities appeared and the following spring four more were colonized. Mary Ann Culpepper, the rush advi sor for Chi Omega and long time follower of Panhellenic says none of the sororities started out with more than thirty' members. The system has doubled its size several times over in the last ten years to involve over 1,300 area women, she says. Culpepper attributes growth of Panhelle nic to growth of the school. “It was only in 1970 that A£>M lifted the final restric tions about admitting wo men,” she says. “You went from no girls on campus to thousands of girls on campus.” Enrollment of women rose from 1,767 in 1971 to 10,423 in 1978. Culpepper says young women began looking around for a way to find an identity 7 on a campus of ever-increasing size. ■ “We offer a real important thing to the University',” she says. “Not only housing for the girls but a way to find a niche at Afe>M. Afe>M has no tradi tions for girls, it was an all male school so the traditions are male oriented. A girl going to college wants participation opportunities.” Sorority rush is more formal than fraternity' rush. There are prescribed rules (no alcohol), prescribed dress (sun dress, etc.) and a set schedule. Soror ity' rush is the week before school starts and involves a complicated system of home town references and down home bullshit. “It’s a mutual selection pro cess,” Seifert says. “People think of it as a negative process but it really isn’t.” The process itself involves going to parties sponsored by each sororitiy, all 10 the first day then gradually cutting them down to two on the last day. Seifert says this gives both the sororities and the rushees an opportunity to match up. “I also want to stress that we operate on the quota system here,” she say's. The quota system means that the number of girls still going through rush on the sec ond day is taken and divided by the number of sororities. This number is quota. Sororities can take less than quota but not more. Seifert says a lot of girls, like herself, go through rush be cause their mothers made them or simply because they' are curious. “I went through with the at titude that I wasn’t going to , pledge,” she says. “I came in as pre-med and a lot of the sorori ties really emphasized schol- arhip and many stressed Chris tian ideals. It was so opposite what I expected. I pledged.” Seifert says that fraternities and sororities are alike in that they' are the subject of wide spread misconceptions about their purposes, their goals and sendees to their members and the community'. One function of the Greek system, she says, is to improve scholarship and proride lead ership opportunities, some thing people not involved with Greek organizations overlook. Seifert says that the Greek GPR seepage 12