Page:The Fraternity and the Undergraduate (1923).pdf/77

 there. It is interesting what strange conventions grow up about us.

The boy who has been asked to join a fraternity may safely take a reasonable time in making his decision. Most fraternities give the rushee the opposite idea, but there is little to it. If a fraternity wants a man whom they have asked, they will give him such time as he needs to make up his mind what he wants to do. "We never hold a bid open" is the conventional bunk which most fraternities use to force a man to an immediate decision.

"I don't know what to do," a freshman said to me last fall. "I must give my answer by six tonight to the fellows who have asked me. I want to join a fraternity, but I'm not yet sure that this is the right one for me. If I don't join this one, I may never get another chance. What shall I do?"

"Be a good sport," I answered, "and take a risk. If you are not prepared to give them an answer at six, they'll give you another week if you insist on it." He insisted and got it. I have seldom known an organization to turn a man down when he called that sort of bluff. I asked a junior fraternity man yesterday what special advice he would give a freshman being rushed, and he answered smiling, "Well, if it's any other fraternity than ours, I'd say to him to look them over pretty carefully, and