There's quite the phenomenon plaguing the weekends of us first-year students, well more prominently us female first-year students.
It's what I like to call the faux-frat boy phenomenon.
Around 10:30 p.m. on a Friday or Saturday night, first-year boys' phones all across campus light up from that magical text inviting them to come over to [insert confusing name here] fraternity.
And why in the name of Natty Light would they say no? There really aren't any consequences for them.
There's no enforcement of the Oct. 12 rule, with that being the first day our nervous first-year feet are allowed to touch greek property.
Rather, they receive positive reinforcement for ignoring that rule, as the fraternity boys keep inviting them back.
Most girls however, honor this rule out of great fear. For we greatly jeopardize our chances at recruitment, with all the quite serious repercussions outlined for us by the Panhellenic Council.
Let's be honest here, due to the catty nature of girls, there's a very large chance that we would be caught and subsequently blacklisted.
So, it's easy to see why most of us end up watching Netflix in our dorm rooms, while most boys are partying out of their not-yet-frat-boy minds.
In conducting a poll, 18 out of 20 first-year boys said they had been on greek property, while only three girls out of 20 had. However, the problem here really isn't the golden Oct. 12 rule.
No, the problem is the discrepancy within how it is enforced, or rather isn't enforced. Let's cut the gender bias crap, and have it equally enforced for both sides.
The rule isn't pointless, rather the intentions are very intelligent. It makes us get to know our classmates, the people we're spending our next four years with. And of course, it keeps us out of trouble, at least for a short while anyway.
Starting college is overwhelming enough without being thrust immediately into greek life. It gives us time to begin to get acclimated, and it makes the transition easier by being around people who are in the same boat.
-- Walsh is a freshman from Crown Point, Ind. whose major is undeclared.