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Letter to the Editor | New recruitment fee deters potential members

Ben Meacham, meachabp@miamioh.edu

This year, the Interfraternity Council (IFC) decided to charge a $20 fee to sign up for formal recruitment. In previous years, this fee did not exist. Apparently, the primary reason for imposing the fee was to provide food (pizza) for all chapters during rush. For some reason, it must have been deemed "unfair" that some chapters had provided food to potential new members (PNMs) during rush in previous years and others had not.

Honestly, the infliction of this payment on PNMs is nothing more than a deterring factor. I am a member of Greek Life and former recruitment chair of my fraternity at Miami. Personally, I was not sure about rushing my freshman year. Had the fee been in place at that time, I would have been less likely to sign up for formal recruitment. I'm sure this was the case for more than a few guys this year.

IFC needs to reconsider charging the registration fee next year for formal recruitment. No one should be discouraged from signing up just so chapters can have food during rush. This year, the fee made PNMs decide whether or not they wanted to partake in Greek Life prior to going through formal recruitment. Rushing should be a time for exploration in order to make a decision about joining the Greek community. Forcing PNMs to make this determination ahead of time is not conducive for maximum inclusion, and it simply is not fair.