By Peter Jackson
Tonight, in case you reside beneath a rock, is Preference Night for women rushing sororities.
Kappas, Thetas and Chi-Os will be made. Walking around Bobb, one might think tombstones reward the rest.
For some, however, the choice goes beyond, “Which sorority?” to, “Should I go to class tonight?”
Some 23 rushees in a Medill class – Edit 201 – have mandatory lab sessions that conflict with this final rush event.
Many of the women asked their lab instructors if they could swap sections for the week, leave class early or skip lab without penalty. The reactions ranged from quizzical to supportive to hostile, freshmen said in interviews.
Then the Micheles of Medill stepped in.
Last Wednesday, Michele Weldon, the lead lecturer for the course, informed Michele Bitoun, director of undergraduate education, that she spent four to five hours over Monday and Tuesday fielding e-complaints from bitter freshmen.
Bitoun then addressed the issue in an e-mail Thursday to all Edit 201 students – myself included.
“Let me clarify the priories (sic) here at the University: We encourage you to get involved in rewarding campus activities, but we believe that your academic classes come first,” she wrote.
The one caveat is for “circumstances beyond the student’s control,” like an illness or a family emergency, Weldon said.
Is Pref Night really under their control? The social necessity of going Greek at Northwestern is certainly beyond their control, and so, for the most part, is scheduling for the class (4 of the 11 sections meet tonight).
The choice is still the students’, though Bitoun worked to find a way for them to be in two places at once.
“I think the lead is, Thank goodness for her, Michele (Bitoun) is contacting the Panhellenic League to try to fix all this,” said Weldon, who did not join a sorority during her time here.
Well, a big “Medill F” for that lead. It’s the Panhellenic Council, not an ancient Greek seafaring union.
Call me a quibbler, but her slip underscores the indifference and occasional hostility Medill shows the Greek system.
Weldon did not push a voluntary Martin Luther King Jr. day lab session (“It’s against university rules”) or try to shuffle students into other sections (“It’s about trying to maintain the level of instruction.”) She left the choice to skip to freshmen, as she has every year since she first began to teach the course in 2001.
“My freshman year, when I needed to leave to go to Bid Night, my (Medill) professor wouldn’t let me,” said Ashley Yore, a Medill senior. “I tend not to let Medill people know I’m in a sorority. Some of my professors I tell, some of my professors I’d never tell.”
Bitoun soldiered on for a solution, however, and in a Friday e-mail said the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life would make “special arrangements” to allow students to both attend lab and Pref Night.
Weldon forwarded the same e-mail to me. They sit like pancakes in my inbox, except Weldon’s goes by “rush solution” instead of Bitoun’s comparatively modest “rush activities.”
The non-solution was this: official word from Sorority Life and Panhel that students should go to class. Freshman said they were warned rushing might taint their Medill careers.
There will be no substitute for Pref Night, just a promise no retribution will be visited upon the women by the sororities. Not that there can be – on Pref Night, the women are the ones choosing their final destination. The sororities’ duty is simply to woo them.
Without Pref Night, the choice is blind. Because the mindset of rushees shifts from avoiding being cut to choosing their house, most see it as the most crucial night of the process.
Academics and extracurriculars can, and maybe even should, be kept apart. But why not strive for a real fix when they clash instead of simply slapping “solution”on an unsolved problem?
Masquerading this as a solution smacks of schadenfreude, and it couldn’t be more unbecoming for one of the world’s premier journalism schools.
Medill freshman Peter Jackson can be reached at [email protected].
