Page:The Fraternity and the Undergraduate (1923).pdf/89

 that if he refuses the first bid that comes to him he may not get another. He seizes the bird at hand, doubtful of being able to grasp the more attractive ones in the bush. If the rushee were not pushed so hard, if he were given more time to deliberate, if the whole matter of fraternity membership were not sprung upon him suddenly and forcibly, he would be more likely to come to a settled and final judgment than he now is. At present he is made to decide before he knows what he actually wants, and he does not realize that if he gets what he does not want it would be better not to have anything at all.

Indecision on the part of fraternity men themselves is another prime cause of lifting. A fraternity may have been indifferently rushing a man or perhaps may only have been considering the possibility of doing so. When they see that while they have been dallying another organization has pledged him, their interest and his worth are immediately exaggerated beyond all reason, and they soemtimessometimes [sic] feel that they must under such a circumstance have him at any cost. I have in mind now a man who was being lukewarmly considered by three organizations. No one of them was particularly enthusiastic or interested in him. One of the three without much elation brought itself to the point of bidding him; immediately the