Page:The Fraternity and the Undergraduate (1923).pdf/72

 too complicated and offer no easy and adequate means of enforcement.

The prohibiting of rushing during the first semester would not solve the problem. Men would always violate the spirit of such a regulation. The normal time for men to get acquainted and form friendships is when men first meet, not six months afterwards. The pledging of men before they enter college I think ought not to be permitted. The limit of a few days, at least, within which time men might not be bid would I think help matters, and I feel sure we shall come to the time when all fraternities will abandon the "sweat box" system of bidding a man still employed by many organizations, and instead of pushing him into a corner, gagging him, and forcing the pledge button on him whether he is eager for it or riot, the proper officer of the fraternity will write him a courteous, dignified note, and will give him an adequate time to come to the decision which, for every college man who must decide whether he will join a fraternity or not, is one of the most important decisions he is called upon during his freshman year to make.

Having said some things with reference to rushing, and the members of the chapter itself, there is much advice and many suggestions that I might give to the rushee. The man for whom these snares are being laid, for whom the wary lie in