Photo by: Laura Hathaway
What really happened at the Alpha Gamma Delta house during sorority rush weekend? Did Alpha Gamma Delta actually fly in sisters from another chapter to help them get more recruits? Here’s what happened.
Rumors were circulating campus and Greek Life that the Alpha Gamma Delta house had a few extra girls participating in recruitment over rush weekend, Sept. 27 through Oct. 2. After talking to several girls who participated in rush and the president of the Alpha Gamma Delta chapter on campus, this is the story.
“The AGD house said that they had Las Vegas sisters there to show them how a formal recruitment works,” said Sydney Stroup a freshman who went through the rush process. “I was never told that the girls were there to help with rush, only that they were there to witness a formal recruitment.”
Some girls were questioning whether or not it was allowable for out-of-state members to contribute in rush.
“It is acceptable for members from another school to participate in the
recruitment process, as long as they identify themselves as such,” said Megan Small, the Pan-Hellenic vice president of recruitment.
The president of Alpha Gamma Delta had an explanation.
“My sister is in our sorority at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and wanted to see how we did rush so her and some of her friends came out,” said Samantha Newport, president of Alpha Gamma Delta. “There were only three of them that came and they didn’t stay for all five days of rush.”
Differing opinions came from the recruits on whether or not they were well informed about the girls from Las Vegas and how rush at the Alpha Gamma Delta house went over the weekend.
“During the first day of rush when I visited the AGD house I found out that they had girls coming from Las Vegas; the girls did not make it a public announcement but I found out because the girl from AGD who talked to me told me that she was coming from Las Vegas due to a special exchange or chapter activity that they were having during the weekend,” said Vanessa Torres, a freshman who participated in the rush process.
“The second day, when I got to talk to an AGD girl from DU I noticed that there was a huge difference in the way she presented the sorority and introduced herself. I can say that I really liked the way the girl from Las Vegas introduced us to the sorority and their philosophy,” said Torres. “While on the contrary, the girl from DU gave me a really bad impression of what a sorority was like, only discussing topics such as boys, parties and social events.”
“Then, the third day when I got to go to the house and talk to different girls, I realized that AGD has a really diverse student body,” said Torres. “I got to talk to girls from DU who finally gave me a good impression on the sorority and did not talk about parties and boys all the time, or what is cool or not.”
“However in general, the girls from Las Vegas were doing a better job in talking about their sorority and what really matters,” said Torres.
There are other views of the entire rush proceedings that occurred at Alpha Gamma Delta.
“I thought that both chapters really fit together well. I personally only talked to one Las Vegas AGD but she seemed to get along really well with the rest of the house,” said Stroup. “They all seemed to have a good time together.”
“From my own experience the Las Vegas girls being there aided in my view of AGD,” said Stroup. “She was really great and the fact that she got along with the house so well really helped my opinion of AGD.”
Whether or not having the extra three Alpha Gamma Delta sisters from UNLV present for part of rush aided the DU chapter in getting more girls to pledge the sorority or not is undeterminable.
“I don’t think it mattered at all. Everyone knew about it and they knew they didn’t go here so I just thought it was fun having them here,” said Newport. “This is my last year and I really wanted my sister to do it with me and get to know the girls in my house and I don’t think it got us more girls.”
“In my case it did not affect my view on the sorority either in a positive or negative way,” said Torres. “However, I think that in general it affected them in a negative way, since a lot of rumors originated from this fact. I just think that they should have made it clear the first day and made it a public announcement so that there would not be as many rumors and silly ideas going around campus.”
Alpha Gamma Delta ended up getting eight new girls to join their sorority and welcomed having three visitors for the rush weekend.
