Towson’s campus and community news source Online daily aithetowerlightcom
Monday,
9/27/10
TEARS OF JOY, FEELINGS OF SORROW
Breaking into Greek life Junior rugby Piayer
found dead in home
LAUREN SLAVIN
Senior Editor
Going into their home opener against the University of Maryland
Saturday, the Towson Men’s Club Rugby team wasn’t thinking about
extending their 13-2 spring season or about the fans outside Burdick
Field cheering them on.
The players were remembering one of their own who wouldn’t be
playing in the game.
"Everyone on the team knows what happened about Abe, so
everyone has it in the back of their mind," club president Colby
Buss said. "So some guys are saying, ‘This is for you Abe, this is
your game.'"
Towson University junior Abe Cahan died Thursday, Sept. 23,
according to his father. Police were called to Cahan’s Towson Woods
apartment at 1:43 p.m. with a report of a possible cardiac arrest,
towson.patch.com was told by a police spokesman.
The office of the chief medical examiner of the state of Maryland
could not be contacted to determine a cause of death.
Most of the team heard the news later that evening, according
See CAHAN, page 11
Casey Prather/ The Tower light
Two recruits rush across Burdick field toward their soon-to-be sisters of Zeta Tau Alpha at Towson University’s
Panhellenic Association Bid Day on Sunday. More than 400 women rushed sororities this fall, the most ever.
LAUREN SLAVIN
Senior Editor
There are two things Kelly Byrnes has known since she was a
little girl: that she wanted to be a dentist and that she wanted to
be in Kappa Delta.
The freshman biology major is in the pre-dental undergraduate
program, well on her way to completing one lifelong ambition. She
began her second Wednesday, the first night of fall rush.
Byrnes and more than 400 other women attended orientation
night on Sept. 22, where they could find out about the 10 sororities
they could potentially pledge. That is, if they didn’t know already.
"My mom was a Kappa Delta, so I’m also a legacy," Byrnes said.
"The Kappa Deltas kind of know I'm coming already, so I’m basi¬
cally kind of in already."
A steady drizzle Sunday morning didn’t stop the five-day process,
and the sun came out just in time for the pledges, bids in hand, to
run down Burdick Field and through a balloon arch, signifying their
journey into Towson Greek life.
More on Sorority Rush:
Go to thetowerlight.com for exclusive video
content on the entire rush process, from forming
lines in the union to racing across Burdick Field.
More than 500 women registered online to participate in rush,
the most the program has ever seen, according to Amy Kerr, gradu¬
ate assistant for Fraternity and Sorority Life.
"I really believe the executive board for the Panhellenic
Association promoted themselves amazingly this year,” Kerr said.
"I just think they really went above and beyond this year to make it
known even before school started."
The 2010 Panhellenic executive board, the youngest in Towson
University’s history, spent hours in a cramped office in the Union
planning the five days they had to find each student a home in a
sorority. Many of the board members were experiencing the Rush
process for the second time.
"Generally everyone was just really pumped and excited about
going through Rush," sophomore and sixth vice president of
recruitment counseling Tracey Abrams said.
"They were nervous, I was nervous, the whole board is nervous."
Starting Aug. 1, the board and Rho Chi (or group guides through
the Rushing process) became disassociated with their respective
sororities, as to not influence the women who would be Rushing
in the fall.
They were not allowed to socialize with their sisters until
Sunday's Bid Day, when they reveal to the pledges their letters and
rim to their chapter.
"It's been the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life," Abrams
See RUSH, page 15
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The men’s rugby team comes together before facing UMD
at home on Saturday, their first game after Cahan's death.
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