The bus was pretty crowded, but I was lucky enough to find a seat toward the middle, right next to this guy who was talking to a girl in the seat in front of us. As I sat down, I couldn’t help but overhear their excited conversation.

“Are you guys ready for rush next week?” the girl was asking.

“Yeah, we lost a lot of big guys already this year due to grades and graduation, and we are losing a lot more in May. We need to get some big guys or else we’re screwed for Tugs this year,” the guy replied, and he actually did look worried.

“You guys did great last year,” the girl said supportively, which seemed to cheer him up a little.

“Yeah, but our basketball team stunk. We are going to try and get some good ballplayers, too. It’s gonna be tough,” he said, his face starting to show stress lines again.

Even though I understand the purpose of discrimination in choosing members due to the high standards of fraternities, I had a question.

Hey, do you guys mind if I ask you a question?.

“No, man, go ahead and ask,” the guy said.

Do you ever feel like a jerk for being so prejudiced during rush?

Maybe I could have phrased the question a little differently, but I was really curious. I know how difficult it is to turn some people down because of standards, but I wanted to hear him justify his criterion.

The guy almost hit me, and the girl gave me one of those “You- Are-Such-a-Dork” looks.

“Man, you are a complete idiot,” the guy said angrily. “We are not prejudiced!”

You’e not?

“No, man! We’ve had black guys in our house before, and Chinese, too! It’s because of dorks like you that Greeks get a bad rep, and you are even in a house! You should know better!”

Thankfully, the next stop was mine.

This reminded me of a conversation I had a few months ago, when the executive director of my fraternity asked me if I would be interested in working for the fraternity after graduation as a field consultant.

I threw up my hands, and said “No, thanks!”

When he asked me why not, I told him the honest-to-God truth.

“Doug, have you ever heard of that saying that 20 percent of the members of a fraternity, or any organization, do 80 percent of the work, and that this 20 percent consists of leaders?”

“Yes,” he said, not really understanding where I was headed.

“Well,” I continued, “There is sort of an unspoken second line to that phrase, and that states that while 20 percent of the members are working their butts off to better the fraternity, there is another 20 percent who are idiots — dead weight — who are stalling the progress of the system. And I really don’t have the patience to deal with these people.”

And it is unfortunate that the idiots have more effect on the image of the Greek System than the leaders.”

Rush, using the correct standards, is the best time to start to better those percentages.