Over the course of January, hundreds of students participated in spring rush for the USC Panhellenic Council and the University Park Interfraternity Council. Students also participated in rush for the Asian Greek Council and some chapters of the Multicultural Greek Council. Rush, also called “formal recruitment,” is the process for fraternities and sororities to recruit new members to join their houses.

The spring rush process for UPIFC included a changed, unstructured format which allowed potential new members to tour fraternity houses in any order over three days.

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The unstructured format marks a departure from Fall 2023 rush and means PNMs will no longer rank and narrow their preference of houses. Instead, fraternities will be able to extend bids at any point during the week of events. Additionally, PNMs will no longer be directly informed if a house is no longer considering them.

Unlike UPIFC, PHC’s spring rush is the only formal recruitment period, which consists of nine sororities affiliated with USC. Under Student Life rules, students may only join an affiliated sorority or fraternity after completing 12 academic units at USC, resulting in PHC hosting rush in the spring.

PHC spring rush began Jan. 4 as PNMs participated in a kickoff informational meeting and five days of house visits and activities split between two weekends. Over the five days, PNMs ranked and visited a shrinking pool of houses.  

Antonia Brooks, a freshman majoring in journalism and new member of Kappa Alpha Theta, said while she knew the sorority’s recruitment criteria could be unclear, the process also gave her opportunities to practice self confidence.

“Preparing yourself for rush requires that you not compare yourself to other girls,” Brooks said. “Rather than trying to guess what they’ll wear, how to stand out, and how to be the best one, it’s more so about embracing yourself because … that’s when I was the most confident.”

Finally, on Jan. 14, PNMs who had not withdrawn from rush received confirmation of their new house on “bid day.”

Brooks said around 400 PNMs gathered on the Great Lawn to learn their new houses. She said she heard 850 PNMs had begun the process, but students withdrew as their top choices dropped them. 

She said bid day was a blast and that opening the envelopes with bids was a unifying experience.

“I freaked out and then I ran to all my friends who got the same house,” Brooks said. “It felt like connecting with all these new girls. All the girls I was hugging [were] girls I didn’t even know the names of.”

While some students enjoyed rush, not everyone has had a successful recruitment experience. Sophie Warshauer, a USC alum, said that her rushing experience was discouraging and self-deprecating during 2021 and 2022.

“I began the [rushing] process super optimistic about it, and then after the first round of rush, I was dropped by every house that I had liked. That was really discouraging to me especially because me and my roommates didn’t have the same experience,” Warshauer said. “It felt personal because [sororities] were making these decisions off of personal conversations that I was having with these girls.”

Despite rushing a second time in 2022, Warshauer was still dropped by her desired houses. While Warshauer said she felt embarrassed and questioned her self-worth after her rushing experience, she said unsuccessful rushing experiences are more common than one may think. 

Whether a student successfully enters Greek life or not, Warshauer said in hindsight, rushing was not as significant as she thought it was during her time at USC. 

“It didn’t mean that I couldn’t still be friends with girls in the houses,” Warshauer said. “It didn’t mean that I would be excluded from a kind of social scene. That wasn’t the case … I think it felt like a really big deal at the time, and then as things went on, I realized that it wasn’t.” 

Spring rush for UPIFC — which began with the unstructured house tours on Jan. 13, 14 and 15 — is still ongoing. Between Jan. 16 and 20, PNMs may be invited to participate in chapter events hosted by specific fraternities.

IFC spring rush includes 15 houses. One of these, Pi Kappa Phi joined UPIFC in Spring 2024 and will be welcoming its first class. 

In August 2022, eight members of the USC Interfraternity Council decided to disaffiliate from the University, with another three following in October and November. Of the 15 houses represented by the UPIFC only two, Delta Tau Delta and Kappa Sigma, are also part of the USC IFC. 

Zachary Olson, a freshman majoring in mechanical engineering, said the changes in UPIFC rushing logistics have positively contributed to his experience interacting with fraternities.

“I probably would have [rushed under the old system], but I don’t think it would have been as good,” Olson said. “I have a roommate and we’re doing this together. So this way we could actually go to houses together.”

By Sunday, all UPIFC bids will be awarded and PNMs will know their new houses.