Written by John Mark Adkison
The club process came to a close for the year on Friday night. The student center returned to its peaceful state, the pledge books have been put away and many students are dealing with mounds of homework and sore throats. Harding University can now take a deep breath of relief and settle down — at least until Spring Sing starts up.
Compared to many public universities, Harding’s pledge process must look rather odd. After all, we have social clubs, not fraternities and sororities. We meet in classrooms and sing hymns, not live in big houses and throw parties. We also subjugate our inductees to only a week of rigorous activities to prove they can make the club, not a whole semester of it. And yet, even among our fellow church of Christ-related schools, Harding is unique.
Freed-Hardeman Universityin Henderson, Tenn., has a similar process to Harding’s in that its initiation process is only a week long. Each club has its own chant that members perform every night, and it usually involves some sort of choreography.
“We don’t really have much of a pledge process. We just have to earn a certain number of points by the end of ‘pledge week’ and we are pretty much in,” said Ryan Overturf, a freshman at Freed-Hardeman who has already pledged. “Each thing that we did was worth a set number of points with the number depending on how crazy what we did was. They say we can’t do some stuff, but I don’t really know that they enforce the rules pertaining to that.”
Another major difference between Harding and Freed-Hardeman clubs is that Freed-Hardeman’s are co-ed. So, they have no need for queens and beaux.
As forLipscomb Universityin Nashville, Tenn., what we call pledging they call rushing. And their process works very similarly to Harding’s.
“The first thing a person has to do is attend three open rushes, then they have to get invited to closed rush, then the person puts a bid in for the club they want to be in and then the club must pick you on bid night. All of this takes about three weeks,” said Meredith Hrebenack, a sophomore at Lipscomb.
There initiation period lasts 10 days and all of the pledges must live together in one room for that time. They have their own crazy traditions, such as hugging trees when club officers pass by and the members hold a “kidnap breakfast” for the pledges.
Unlike the other church of Christ-affiliated schools,Pepperdine Universityin Malibu, Calif., supports fraternities and sororities, with houses and all.
Trying to compare our pledge process to a major school rush is like comparing big purple bows to bright orange hats. However, do not start disregarding Pepperdine just yet. Sophomore Clay Karels claims the school does its best to ensure absolutely no hazing takes place and that students are held to high standards.
“The pledge process is hard for guys, easy for girls. Girls just get spoiled by their ‘big sis,’ and guys have to do a rigorous process to make them ‘men.’ Though there is no hazing, they are intense and you generally get little sleep and spend lots of money,” Karels said.
And then there isAbilene Christian Universityin Abilene, Texas, who may hold the most in common with Harding’s pledge process. After all, Abilene has its own versions of Ko Jo Kai, GATA, Gamma Sigma Phi and Sub T-16. It even still has Galaxy. Yet, the differences between schools — and even clubs — are rather major.
According to Emily Timmons, who is a sophomore at Abilene and a transfer from Harding, there are about six to eight weeks of pledging rather than just one. Secondly, a student can only pledge as a sophomore. During this longer process, pledges get their own intramural sport teams and attend every club event. Another interesting fact is at Harding, Ko Jo Kai pledges are called the lady bugs, but at Abilene, GATA pledges are the lady bugs.
Abilene has no all-club devotionals or chant competitions. Instead, they do something a little bit different.
“Each club makes a float and comes up with a song or something to sing along with it in the homecoming parade,” Timmons said. “Some of the guys’ ones are hilarious, and it’s a lot of fun to watch. Sub-T usually just bounces up in down in a van that has the top half cut off and sings a song. They were leaking gasoline all the way down [the road] this year.”
Harding University, while it may be one of many private Christian colleges, holds to its own unique social club traditions. Can you imagine Club Week without big purple bows? Without “Jump, Jump, Shake Your Booty”? Or without that orange crush that may or may not be waiting just around the corner?
