Event celebrates brotherhood, the Greek community

An early, chilled overcast morning was not enough to deter hundreds of Oregon State University students and members of the Greek community from coming out to the Memorial Union quad Saturday and taking flight.

104 newly recruited fraternity members at OSU were both literally and metaphorically thrown into their awaiting brotherhoods this weekend at the annual Spring Jump event, capping the end of the formal Interfraternity Council (IFC) spring recruitment period..

Participating in Spring Jump is a tradition among OSU fraternities. According to Morgan Melendrez, a junior in business management and the vice president of public relations with the Interfraternity Council, the event focused on strengthening brotherhood and community within chapters.

“After the reading off of the names, the members are able to get a proper experience of OSU Greek life,” Melendrez said.

Arriving at the MU around 8:30 a.m., newly recruited members of fraternities gathered to register with IFC as the crowd at the bottom of the MU quad steps grew steadily until the event’s start at 10 a.m. By the time members of the IFC began to read out the names of the new members, the energy among those gathered was electric.

“Jump is the best holiday every year,” said Andrew Ibarra, a sophomore in communications with a minor in political science, and the recruitment chair for Phi Gamma Delta.

Of the over 100 people that jumped this year include freshman in pre-business Kyle McGuigan, who was recently recruited by Ibarra to join Phi Gamma Delta. McGuigan said he enjoyed the Jump day experience

“Hearing your name, running down the steps, through the flags, and jumping into the brotherhood was almost like what I imagine running out to war is like,” McGuigan said. “It was a crazy adrenaline rush.”

McGuigan and many others shared in their excitement for the event, and for their upcoming involvement with the fraternities they were jumping into.

“Waiting in line to hear my name called was like the day before Christmas,” McGuigan said.

While Fall Jump traditionally sees a larger number of people both jumping and in attendance at the event itself, this year still saw large recruitment numbers for some fraternities.

Dane Piazza, a sophomore in kinesiology, is the president of Sigma Pi, which had 12 new members jump on Saturday.

“This was one of our biggest Spring rush classes in a while, Piazza said. “We are always trying to get bigger. This Spring was a good all house effort.”

Leslie Schacht Drey, the director for the Center for Fraternity and Sorority Life at OSU, said that although the Spring Jump event is smaller than the one in fall, this weekend’s event allowed for the smaller to middle sized fraternities to experience the benefits of growth.

“This is a renewal of brotherhood,” Schacht Drey said. “It allows for the chapters to get excited about new members, and to go through the new member process again.”

Schacht Drey credited IFC for the successful planning of the event.

Following Jump on Saturday, members of the Greek community participated in a community cleanup Sunday morning, and Melendrez said that they are looking forward to improving these events as they move forward.

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