By Paul A. Anthony, Editor in Chief

Changes to the social club rushing and pledging process will be slight, unlike in years past, according to Campus Life officials.

Both men’s and women’s clubs now will have open reception rushes for anyone interested in pledging later in the semester. Previously, women’s clubs would have informal teas, but the men would have nothing right before formal rushing began. The rush receptions will be given Sunday, and several men’s club presidents have expressed support for the rush.

Also changing is the time allowed for rushing, down to three days instead of a week ike in years past. But aside from those small changes, Campus Life saw no reason to tinker with a process it thought worked well last year, said Amanda Spell, director of Student Organizations.

“We had a great last year,” Spell said. “We saw no need to make any changes.”

Controversial topics last year such as pledge clothing and pickup truck usage remain unchanged, Spell said. Clubs may allow pledges to wear so-called historical colors twice a week, traditional colors twice a week and purple on Fridays. Likewise club members, like all ACU students, are prohibited from riding in pickup truck beds. Spell said these rules were followed last year.

“Everyone seemed pretty happy,” she said. “It worked out fine for everybody.”

One of the more controversial additions this year will take place with the publication of the second annual Social Club Handbook in the spring. The handbook will begin listing a five-star rating with each club. The proposal has been widely disliked by many social club members and its potential effectiveness questioned by others.

“I personally do not see a need to rate clubs on this five-star system,” said Randy Trowell, Frater Sodalis president and co-chair of the Social Club Presidents Council. “There are just too many gray areas for me to feel comfortable endorsing it.”

Spell said there may have been a lack of communication. She said the purpose of the system is not to judge social clubs, but rather to showcase them.

“Every club would have gotten four or five stars last year,” she said. “We’re using this as an opportunity to show how great our clubs are.”

The system awards one star each for:

* Honoring the university’s mission, which includes service and leadership;

* Honoring the club’s own organizational mission;

* Having an average GPA of 3.0 and at least a 95 percent graduation rate;

* Being in good standing with Spell’s office, financially sound and several other related practices; and

* A club’s leaders attending leadership development events.

Spell said some of the qualifications, like honoring the university’s mission, are purposely subjective so as to avoid measuring things like service in numbers. She said the idea for the system came from looking at other schools’ Greek policies, where she said such a system is “standard practice.”