Today, I had some really funny rush experiences happen to me and some other girls in my house. So today I was walking my girl (who happened to be a huge dud!) to the door and I committed (again!) one of the many rush cardinal sins–I told this rushee I would see her later, when I knew full well that if I saw her again, I would definitely think that someone’s TI-85 calculator must have malfunctioned while calculating her day scores. As if that wasn’t bad enough, her rush counselor could have heard me, and could fine our house (if they decided to turn us in) $500.
Let me just give you the scoop on these rush counselors. They are known to everyone as “Rho Chi’s,” and many girls from every house submit applications for the job around March every year. But I had no idea how much work they actually had to do–I mean they not only carry enough mints and tampons to supply a small town, but they are gone every day from 7 a.m. to midnight. Rho Chi’s have been used by the Greek system in order to make the transition from freshman to pledge so much easier. Rho Chi’s have a mafia-like secretness to them. The girls that are Rho Chi’s (my roommate is one) have to become completely disaffiliated with their houses for the weeks before and during rush. They can’t reveal to their rushees what house they are in and are initiated into their own “Rho Chi sorority.” If we have any pictures that the Rho Chi’s are in, we have to cover up their faces. So, today I was standing right near our house composite, where all the pictures of the Rho Chi’s are supposed to be covered up–well, I look up and realize that Rho Chi Jill’s picture is completely showing. So, I had to stand there covering up her picture for about 15 minutes, while our house’s president went downstairs to get anything she could find, to cover up this girl’s face. Needless to say, the arms were a little tired after that.
Rushees also go to extreme lengths in trying to find out what house their Rho Chi is in. We had a girl call last week who was asking for my roommate, and she told the girl who answered the phone that it was her sister and it was imperative that she speak with her and thus find out her last name. We also had another close call, when a sophomore in our house came up to talk to me and a rushee that she had known from high school. They were talking and she said, “Oh yeah, you know Nicole S. … and this is her roommate”–I didn’t really know what to say after that. I told my Rho Chi roommate later on that night and she was not very happy that this girl had given away her anonymity. In these past few years, many Rho Chi’s are out to get you when they are stationed out in front of a house–they want to catch you doing something wrong, like talking on the porch or going over the time allotted for every party.
I know that on Saturday it will be worth all the hard work that we have put in when we have awesome new girls and we will get our Rho Chi’s back. I can almost guarantee that Saturday could not come sooner for the rushees, for this is the day that they embark on a whole new experience and will get to find out what house their Rho Chi’s were in.
