Spartan Daily - Serving San Jose State University since 1934

Issue date: 8/27/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Hank Drew Members of Delta Sigma Phi fraternity have some fun during rush week events on Tuesday.

Once again, SJSU's 35 fraternities and sororities are going through their biannual recruitment efforts known as rush week. The entire new recruitment effort runs from Aug. 16 to Sept. 13.

Strategically placed rows of small tents line the corridor next to the new Cesar Chavez gate.

Groups of recruiters wearing T-shirts displaying their colors and creeds occasionally darted out to offer fliers to prospective members.

"I think it's a pretty cool thing," said undeclared junior Mario Castillo. "It's a nice day to recruit freshmen. They have like a 'wow' moment when they see this little alley here."

While these fraternities and sororities are intent on bringing new people in, that is not the sole intention of rush week.

"It's yearlong recruiting, but this is just so that we can stand out and let people get to know us," said Hector Garcia, who was recruiting for Gamma Zeta Alpha.

Fall rush week is typically the biggest of the year, and the recent substantial increase in student population has provided plenty of new people for recruiters like Garcia to get to know. By 10:30 a.m., most booths already had their own small huddles of interested people.

Chris Jones, a senior radio television and film major, said he can already tell the difference.

"You can definitely tell that there's more student body on campus," he said. "It seems like a great deal of them are actually interested in Greek life, which is refreshing."

The increased interest has caught a few houses by surprise.

"We had a rush barbecue last night," said John Miranda, a sophomore journalism major. "We used up our whole stock of barbecue meat for two weeks in one night."

Jones and his fraternity had the same experience.

"We had a barbecue last night at 7, and at 7:05 we had, maybe, almost 100 people there," he said. "We have barbecues every year, but this barbecue went from 7 to like 11:30, people coming in and out. From what I heard every house was like that."

Rush week gives recruiters the chance to meet new people.

"Meeting all the new people is really fun," said Mark Lahlouh, a junior mechanical engineering major. "At first they're just strangers, but over the rush you really get to meet all these new faces. It makes you appreciate when you were in their position and you didn't know anyone, and you got to meet new people and make new friends."

"I think it's good for the freshmen to have a nice display of all the different sororities and fraternities, and they have a nice chance to talk to them," said Sarah Bronstein, a junior political science major.

Jones summed up rush week like this: "It's a hassle standing out here in the sun, getting stuff ready, getting events ready and stuff like that, but when it comes down to it, it's fun because you get to know guys who could potentially be in your house. I think it's worth it."

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