LSU is a big place, with more than 27,000 undergrads and countless other faculty and graduate students. It can be hard meeting people and making friends your freshman year.
As this special Reveille section hits the stands, sorority recruitment (which began Aug. 17) and fraternity recruitment (which began Aug. 20) will be well underway. And for those of you participating, you know it can be a long, grueling process.
I went through rush last year and pledged a fraternity, and now one year later I am a t-shirt wearing party-cup collecting advocate for a program that often has a negative connotation.
Joining a fraternity was one of the best decisions I made coming to LSU. Not coming from Baton Rouge, I knew a few people, and joining a fraternity helped me branch out.
For those of you participating in your respective rush, remember the most important thing is to go where you feel the most comfortable. Being a family legacy or having friends in a Greek organization can help you make your decision, but it is also about expanding your horizons.
To me, being Greek is about meeting new people. You can come to college and hang out with the same old crew from high school or you can really branch out, and instead of just having your old group, you can have both.
And yes, you can have both. Somehow I manage to balance my friends from home with my fraternity brothers and new Greek friends.
If you’re not from Baton Rouge or you’re just looking to get away from your house down the road, being in a fraternity or sorority is like having a home away from home. There is always something going on at the house.
Joining a fraternity or sorority is a big decision. By becoming a new member in a Greek organization, you become a part of a brotherhood or sisterhood that will last a lifetime.
But party cups, resume-building community service and a drawer full of Greek t-shirts aren the only perks of being Greek. As it says at the bottom of the Greek directory: “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know,” and being Greek can help you get connected and can even help you later on in your career.
The LSU Greek system has many famous alumni, including Gov. Mike Foster and James Carville, former head of President Clinton’s public relations committee.
Approximately 80 percent of top executives of Fortune 500 companies are Greek, 75 percent of current U.S. senators and representatives are Greek and all but two U.S. Presidents since 1825 have been fraternity men, including George W. Bush.
Being Greek, I can honestly tell you it is worth learning every founding member’s name, memorizing your creed and knowing your cardinal principles by heart to become a member of something bigger than yourself.
The friends you will make in your fraternity or sorority will be the kind that will stand at your wedding and be the godparents of your children. The men in my fraternity are truly my brothers, and I couldn’t call my LSU experience complete without them.
But remember you’re here for school too, and not just to have a good time at Bogie’s every night. If you don’t make the grades, the chances of remaining in your fraternity or sorority are slim.
Relish in every minute of it. Your first semester–packed with football games, exchanges and homecoming events –will be one you will remember for years to come. Enjoy it; it is the most fun you’ll never have again.