#BamaRush shows what’s wrong with public higher ed

Another school year has arrived, and with it, another season of Panhellenic sorority recruitment at the University of Alabama. #BamaRush has gone viral on TikTok in recent years, featuring an endless stream of young women discussing their “OOTD” (outfit of the day) and the drama of being a “PNM” (prospective new member). The phenomena was even the subject of a recent documentary. 

Whether one follows #BamaRush for the sake of escapism, bewilderment, or mockery, there is plenty to deconstruct. One oddity is that many women who participate are actually not from the state of Alabama. In fact, last year only 42 percent of the school’s students came from Alabama. #BamaRush is not just a racialized system (the schools sororities were unofficially segregated until 2013), it’s a system shaped by a troubling shift in college admissions: public universities heavily recruit out-of-state students from affluent, predominantly white high schools because as nonresidents they pay higher tuition. 

The University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa is one of the most egregious offenders, which explains how #BamaRush is full of women who came to UA from outside of the state. This is not an accident. Research shows that UA has recruited more widely across the country than basically any other state school. In 2017, just 9% of 4,349 high school visits by University of Alabama admissions representatives were made within the state. Those reps only visited one-third of the state’s public high schools, and the ones they visited were “concentrated in relatively affluent, predominantly white communities.” Researcher Karina Salazar calls this practice “recruitment redlining,” where universities purposefully avoid predominantly Black high schools and go out of their way to visit predominantly white ones. 

These actions shape who shows up at UA, whether it’s for sorority rush or the first day of class. While the state of Alabama is 27 percent Black, the UA student body was only 11 percent Black in 2021. Some may blame the discrepancy on Black students for “not wanting to come” to a place like UA, which was only desegregated after President Kennedy sent in the National Guard in 1963. Little is said about how UA actively pursues nonresident students from affluent high schools — ironically, by showering them with merit scholarships in order to build a pipeline of nonresident applicants, instead of prioritizing need-based aid for state residents.

Josh Miller wrote that Alabama’s “leaders abandoned the school’s role as a state flagship whose main mission was to teach in-state students and give an economic lifeline to the poor from rural areas. Instead, it became a regional, and eventually national, franchise.” Now UA, like many state flagship institutions, works more as a lifeline for well-off students who want to leave their home state for an adventure in Greek life.

The problem gets worse when other states look to Alabama for inspiration. I live in Virginia, which caps out-of-state enrollment at public universities. However, some have argued the University of Virginia and other institutions should admit more out-of-state students. As a taxpayer, the last thing I want is for our public universities to become a haven for even more affluent out-of-state students. We have a responsibility to educate the resident students of the state, especially populations that have been historically excluded or underrepresented. 

Too many schools around the country are following UA’s formula, which is a particular travesty at land-grant institutions that were funded by the sale of land given to states by the federal government. These should be the last schools prioritizing the wealthy, but many do. In order to reverse the trend, states need to restore funding that was cut during the 2008 recession, and schools need to agree to prioritize in-state recruitment and enrollment. State funding for higher education is on a slight uptick, which is promising, but more investment is needed. Given the recent Supreme Court ruling barring affirmative action in college admissions, moving away from out-of-state recruitment at affluent high schools is a much-needed reform.

#BamaRush keeps going strong year after year, confirming that UA has cemented its brand as a destination for the blond and beautiful. Students from affluent suburbs nationwide will once again descend on the sororities of Tuscaloosa, resulting in yet another round of drama, heartbreak, and of course, OOTDs. It all makes for addictive spectacle — but at what price?

Julie J. Park is associate professor of education at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is Co-Director at the College Admissions Futures Co-Laborative.