Would a frternity or sorority already be holding some kind of rush or initiation?

Factual Questions
1

A few days ago we were driving around West L.A. and Santa Monica. At Bundy and Wilshire I saw a young guy parading, as it were, across the street and around the corners with some strange big blue object on his hand. There were no markings visible as I approached, but after passing him I was able to see that it was one of those “We’re Number One” gloves from UCLA. (I wasn’t the one driving.) The kid, who was probably around 18, looked embarrassed and I don’t think it was only because UCLA hasn’t fielded a top contender in any major team sport for quite a while now.

An hour or two later we were coming east on Wilshire, somewhere near 20th Street in Santa Monica. A woman sheepishly jaywalked across the boulevard wearing a pair of those enormous “Hollywood” joke sunglasses. I thought she looked a lot older than a typical college freshman, but now in hindsight I think she was racked with embarrassment and had accordingly screwed up her face into contorted grimace as much as to say “God, let me get this over!”. She was probably really around 18 years of age, too.

UCLA’s not even in session yet, as far as I know. Would these two people I saw possibly be rushing a Greek house or something?

2

UCLA doesnt even begin Fall Quarter till the last week of Sep. Rush is the first week of each quarter. Many if not most students arent on campus…they are at home or on vacation.

3

Holding initiation rites outside of campus, and outside of regular terms removes any association to a school-based organization. Mishaps, if any, will be easier to manage.

4

I was never in a frat in undergrad, but I’ve known people who were, and neither of those sound like rush/hazing events. I’ve seen some people wearing the giant sunglasses sort of self-mockingly, or possibly even as an actual fashion statement. It seems more likely that you saw two people doing sort of odd things, especially given that UCLA hasn’t started the academic year yet.

5

Maybe two people who lost bets or lost out in a “Truth or Dare” game?

6

That late? Don’t most schools start around Labor Day?

Edited to add that I found the page listing the academic calendar, and the difference appears to be that UCLA has fall, winter and spring quarters. Most schools I’m familiar with have two semesters.

7

You will most likely not see goofy shenanigans during rush. That is when the fraternities and sororities try to attract new members. Fraternities and sororities need new members to keep the house alive and continue the legacy. Kinda hard to attract new members when you’re publicly humiliating them.

Now initiation is another story…

For those who never were part of the greek scene at college, there are 4 stages of membership:

Prospect - During rush, the organization is evaluating the student as much as the student is evaluating them. Everyone has to live together for 4 years. It’s better for everyone to make sure there is a good fit.

Pledge - Toward the end of rush, the fraternity or sorority may invite the prospect to join them. If the prospect accepts, they become a pledge. This is where most of the hazing will occur.* Especially during initiation.

Active - After initiation, the student is a full and active member of the house with all rights and responsibilities, both stated and implied.

Alumni - These are the assholes that graduated only come back for parties and insist that “Don’t Stop Believing” be played on the house stereo system at an obscene volume because “This was the shit back in '84” or whatever.

It is totally possible that fraternity/sorority members arrive back at school before the term starts to get the house cleaned up and/or initiation of pledges. At my fraternity, we were all expected back a week early each semester to give the house a thorough cleaning before classes began. But that was all we did, from 7 am to 10 pm, was clean.

Actually, we did the cleaning two weeks before classes began for the fall semester because rush week was the week before classes began. We did our initiation one of the first couple weekends of the spring semester. It was like a weekend long party from Friday night to Sunday morning. My cousin’s fraternity at a state school did a week long initiation that was all hazing.

Now I’m an alumni and I go back for parties and play “Don’t Stop Believing” on the house stereo because I’m an asshole.

*Not all fraternities and sororities haze. Everyone at my school (a private engineering school) that went to high school in the U.S. graduated in the top third of their class. Everyone there was a geek and/or nerd. None of us would have tolerated hazing. In fact, one fraternity tried it once and the entire pledge class quit. My cousin joined a fraternity at a state school. I sat there in abject horror as he told me of the hazing rituals they went through every year.

8

Well, here at the University of Texas at Austin, actual classes start August 28th, and freshman orientation begins this Friday, August 16th.

So, there are already freshmen starting to move into their new digs, and checking out campus life and activities. So, there may or may not be any official rushes or initiations going on yet, but there are definitely a lot of newcomers on campus checking out frats and sororities.

9

Goofy shenanigans happen after rush. Even the most haze-heavy Greek organizations know they won’t pick up new members if they start the hazing before they are even pledges.

At many campuses, however, sorority rush begins before classes start. It’s an intensive three-plus day process that members and prospective members are expected to attend all of. Fraternity rush is usually a much more haphazard affair. If you’re rushing, you can even just show up on the last day (though the more selective groups may no longer be offering bids by then).

10

I know, I’m an alumnus. One Fall Quarter we didn’t start until October 4th.

11

UGA started classes this week.

Rush started last week or weekend. For some reason, every sorority girl we saw on Sunday was wearing a Little Black Dress of some flavor.

Campus and town was lousy with them!

12

They just started construction on a highrise Hotel/Convention Center on what was Lot 6 (directly across from Ackerman Union.) For some reason it will take them 3 yaers to complete it. Yet still no campus pub.