IFC Recruitment, or "Rush," started off this week on Monday, September 8th at 7:00 p.m. This year there are approximately 132 guys going through rush, one of the lowest turnouts that IFC has had in the past few years.

Each fraternity has a few members that are Rho Chi's, and their job is to take the rushees to all of the different fraternity houses every night.

The seven fraternities participating in IFC Recruitment are Alpha Gamma Rho, Alpha Tau Omega, Kappa Alpha Order, Phi Sigma Kappa, Pi Kappa Alpha, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, and Sigma Phi Epsilon. This year, the new fraternity on campus, Sigma Chi, will be starting their recruitment on Monday, September 15th, at 8:00 a.m.

Monday and Tuesday night were the formal nights, where the fraternity members and servers take the rushees on a tour of the fraternity house and tell them all about the history and the foundation of the fraternity.

Wednesday and Friday night are informal nights, where the atmosphere is more relaxed and the fraternity members get to know the rushees on a more personal basis.

Informal nights usually include food for everyone, and in the past the food has ranged from crawfish and chicken to hamburgers and hot dogs.

Rush will not be held on Thursday night because of the UTM football game.

Saturday is bid day, which is when the rushees will get bids from the fraternities to come and be members.

Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Katie High said "The greek system at UT Martin constitutes a very critical part of student life. A strong Greek system adds to the value of a college education, and all of us in Student Affairs are committed to the Greek organizations, and especially, to the notion that our Greek men and women -- whether that is IFC, NPHC, or NPC, should be among UTM's best leaders."

In 2002, UTM Greeks contributed over 200,000 hours of community service and nearly $150,000 in donations to different philanthropies. "I'm excited about fraternity recruitment this year in a new way. In the last few weeks I've been working with Louis Ragsdale, the IFC, and the different fraternities, and I've gotten to know a lot of the men pretty well,” High said.

“They area a great group of guys ... they have a lot of leadership potential. I am hopeful that recruitment will be very smooth and very, very, productive this fall.”

High also hopes that a permanent Greek Adviser will be in place soon to replace Denny Bubrig, who left UTM at the end of August..