Pledge week at Ouachita normally happens during spring semester. This year the members of the Sigma Alpha Iota decided to hold their formal and informal rush in the fall.
SAI is a national fraternity with the goal of promoting music throughout America and the world.
The formal rush happens on Oct. 9 when club members host a dinner at one of their sponsor’s houses. The informal rush happened Tuesday with the theme VIP Club.
“Our fraternity has gotten smaller, and we realized the benefits of rushing this semester over next because no other female groups are having a rush this semester we don’t have to compete with them,” SAI president Abby Adams said. “Since you can be in SAI and a social club here on campus, but you really can’t rush for both at the same time this gives girls who want to join one of the social clubs a better opportunity to do both.”
The former president and current member of SAI Lindsay Stinson agreed with Adams.
ccording to Stinson, last semester. some music fraternities had trouble getting students to attend rush because it was scheduled the week after the social clubs had rush week.
“Either the girls had pledged with a social club and were too exhausted or behind their homework to considerer rushing again, or they saw their friends go through rush week and were nervous that SAI’s initiation period would be as strenuous as rush week,” Stinson said.
ny girl interested in music regardless of her major is welcomed to SAI.
“Our rushes are open to anyone who even just wants to get to know more about our fraternity,” Adams said. “You are not required to join if you attend our rushes. They are more like mixers than formal meetings. We are a very easy pledge process, and because we are a national fraternity, we abide by national rules and do not haze at all. And for those who join, they experience a lifetime sisterhood with people around the world. It is a great pathway for contacts, job opportunities and friends for the rest of your life.”
Some current members are not music majors.
“You do not have to be music major to join,” Stinson said. “I am a graphic design major, and I was the president last year. You need to have taken at least one semester of a music course such as choir or be enrolled in a music course during rush.”
eople who did not attend the informal rush last Tuesday still have one more chance to join the national fraternity at formal rush on Oct. 9.
“For the formal rush we are planning on a dinner, and playing a few games to get to know one another,” Stinson said. “We explain the process of our initiation period and answer any questions or concerns that the girls might have.”
Adams and Stinson consider the experience of SAI unique and unforgettable.
“Joining SAI was one of, if not the best thing I did for myself at Ouachita,” Adams said. “Some of my best memories of college have been girls’ night with everyone and just random get-togethers with a few of the members,” Stinson said. “It is great to meet girls that have such a love for music and the arts as I do. We all have such different personalities and backgrounds that I feel like I am a part of such a diverse and talented group of girls.”
