Beat the Rush

Author: H. Kay Merriman

Glass shattered and metal crumbled. No, Public Safety isn't impounding your car for the mass amounts of parking tickets you have acquired for leaving it behind Proctor overnight for the twentieth time, but a car is getting smashed. It's Saturday, and Kappa Delta Rho (KDR) is hosting a car-smash as a part of Rush week.

"Rush is like summer camp. It's so much fun!" exclaimed Tavern member Caroline Wade '09.5. Last week was Rush week and the social houses on campus hosted a variety of events in order to meet prospective pledges. Although the necessity of sobriety seems obvious to those hosting bat-wheeling college kids, some are surprised to learn that Middlebury's Rush week is nothing like the crazy drunken run-arounds depicted in movies.

"It's rather low-key compared to what Greeks do at other schools, but that kind of just fits the Middlebury mold," said Tavern Rush Chair Dave Birr '09.

In fact, Middlebury Rush events are sub-free.

"Guidelines for Rush are set by the Inter-House Council and specifies a 12-day period over which the houses are invited to host at least five sub-free events to promote the socialization between members and nonmembers," said IHC President and KDR President Jess Weiss '07. "We hope that the period of Rush creates excitement among the student body and displays the positive characteristics that social houses can provide the Middlebury community."

The social house members seem to support these guidelines.

"It's really important to get to know these people when you're sober," emphasized KDR Rush Chair Celey Schumer '09.

Birr agreed that rushing a social house is all about making connections with your fellow pledges and the current members of the house.

"It really isn't about the events at all. They are really more a context in which to meet people and find a new social group," he said.

KDR member Jason Jude '08 attested that his primary reason for rushing was the people and the relationships that he formed with them.

"I rushed because when I was a freshman one of the senior [members] showed me around, and once I started hanging out down here I realized there were lots of cool people," he said.

Rush events, though, are more than simply hanging out with members and touring houses.

"Middlebury's not a big Greek school, so we wanted to make our Rush events fun and different," explained Schumer.

KDR's events this year included a barbecue and a car-smash.

Tavern likes to throw-back to middle school with playground games.

"We play games of four square in our Great Hall or outside in our courtyard that can get very intense. We lost a member once to a stray playground ball," joked Birr.

In addition to being relaxed, Middlebury's social house system is much more accepting than the Greek system at other schools.

A Delta Gamma member at Denison University outlined the type of person that they look for in rush.

"My chapter and sorority as a whole has specific qualities we are looking for in our women. We want women who are genuine, intelligent. We have a G.P.A requirement to both enter and remain in the house," explained Catherine Sullivan '10. "We want women who are dedicated to service as well as women with diverse interests and talents."

Middlebury's social house system seems to have found a unique balance of the Greek life and inclusive co-ed community.

Birr, who transferred to Middlebury after spending his first year at Wisconsin-Madison, has experienced both the Greek life and the Social House scene.

"At Wisconsin, I was in a fraternity and really enjoyed the unique social atmosphere. I decided to rush Tavern because I liked the people in it who I already knew; and it appeared to me to be the most like a Greek house at a big university than any of the other social houses still left on campus," Birr said.

So, is the social houses system an effective and enjoyable alternative to the Greek system? That's still up for debate, but Senator Nick Sohl '10 seems hopeful.

"I think Middlebury has great houses and the potential to have great social houses is there, but if students don't come, it's their fault," Sohl said.

And with the opportunity to take out some mid-term anxiety on a beat-up van, who could argue that going to KD "Far" was not worth the walk?