By Mitch Holt, Copy Editor
Despite an earlier rushing period this year than past years, ACU social club presidents haven’t noticed a decrease in prospective pledges’ participation, but advertising for rushes has been more difficult during the first week of school, which is the last week of open rushes.
Jordan Gay, president of Gamma Sigma Phi and senior psychology major from Austin, said having a rush on the first day of school was a challenge because the club had minimal time to advertise its first-day-of-school event.
“It’s a little harder to get the word out, especially having a rush on the first day of school,” Gay said. “It makes things a bit more difficult as far as getting your club out there and being able to advertise. But I think it’s gone pretty well.”
Monday’s GSP rush went well despite losing an entire week of advertising, but Gay said it’s a different story with women’s clubs.
He said it’s vital for prospective female pledges to make every event than it is for prospective male pledges because their pledging process is a bit more sensitive.
Ko Jo Kai social club had its first tea on Sunday, and Shelbi Watten, president of the club and senior broadcast journalism major from Coppel, said members were forced to be a bit more lenient on attendance than in the past because of the new rushing schedule.
“The hard part was that we were really nervous about attendance to our first tea,” Watten said. “Hopefully we got everyone that wanted to pledge to come.”
Watten said Mauri Westbrook, coordinator of Student Organizations and Activities, did a solid job advertising rushes and teas and putting up fliers for each event. She said Westbrook helped with advertising tasks that club members couldn’t have gotten done.
This week is the last week of open rushes for all ACU social clubs, and next week’s events will be invitation-only. Attendance to invitation-only rushes depends on the impression each prospective pledge left during first week rushes. If an individual left a good impression, he or she will be invited to the invitation-only rushes.
Elliott Wood, president of Galaxy and senior psychology major from Nashville, Tenn., said pledging a social club isn’t necessarily for everyone but that it opened a lot of doors to things he wouldn’t have been able to do had he not pledged.
“Club gives you a lot of opportunities as far as events are concerned,” Wood said. “But pledging has made it easier for me to have events to go to and build relationships.”
Galaxy’s last open rush was Thursday at Playfaire Park, a miniature golf park located on North First Street. Prospective pledges were paired with club members for 18 holes of miniature golf. Wood said he didn’t notice any decrease in attendance to this year’s open rushes than in past years.
All three club presidents said the number of pledges the club can take depends on the voting process, but the final number each club takes will be relatively close to acceptance numbers in previous years of pledging.
