Fraternities Ordered to Defer Rush Season

CNN article, January 27, 2005
http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/01/27/college.drinking.ap/index.html

Officials at Colorado University recently ruled that sororities and fraternities must push their rush season back to the spring semester. This ruling came in the wake of a recent alcohol related death of a fraternity pledge at the school. The university hopes that this ruling will allow freshmen men and women more time to become familiar with their new surroundings before entering into high peer-pressure Greek pledge seasons.

A national umbrella organization for fraternities has spoken out against these measures, claiming that a university does not have the right to disallow students from taking part in student groups. The university answered these complaints with statistics showing that 30% of U.S. colleges have pushed back rush seasons for similar reasons. They claim that this growing percentage is an indicator that the plan may be help protect young students and encourage them to make good choices.