Freshmen rush posts near record high

Rush week ended recently with campus fraternities and sororities both experiencing surges in new members.

From Aug 18 through Aug 23 campus sororities invited female students to participate in Formal Recruitment, an organized process which gives the prospective female students a chance to see all of the sororities and meet the sisters, and potentially receive bids at the end. During the same period male students participated in the various Rush festivities held by the campus fraternities, who issued bids all week.

According to Matt Swanburg, vice president of recruitment for the Interfraternity Council (IFC), the 30 member fraternity chapters reported 551 bids accepted as of August 28, which falls just short of the record of 553 set in 1998. Phi Gamma Delta (FIJI) had the most accepted bids with 34. The average pledge class among the 30 fraternities is 18.

For the first time the IFC coordinated organized tours of campus fraternity houses. The tours were given in the afternoons on August 18 and 19, the Friday and Saturday after move-in week.

After lunch was served to the students who registered, each group would leave from Peters Parking Deck and then see about 10 of the houses on campus. Students who had a preference to see certain fraternities could specify it when they signed up, so they could be placed into groups accordingly.

"For all the work that we put into it, it was really smooth and easy for the freshmen. [The freshmen] said it looked like we had been doing the tours for years." Swanburg said.

According to Swanburg, over 160 students signed up for the tours, which were hosted among 28 participating fraternity houses. Friday had a much greater turnout than Saturday, and Swanburg said in the future they may decide to hold it as a one big event on Friday rather than spread it out.

"We had about 10 parents going through the tours, and that's something that we're going to push more next year. The parents really loved it because they have no idea what's going on, and being able to talk to the guys in a fraternity house and see the house demystifies the process for them," Swanburg said.

Also for the first time this summer all newly enrolled male students received a letter from Buck Cooke, assistant dean of students and director of Greek affairs, informing them of the benefits of joining fraternities. The benefits included citing the increased graduation rate and GPA for Greek male students compared to non-Greek male students. He also invited them to join in Rush.

"Last year we did a survey of the freshmen and many of them said they only went to three or four chapter houses and then decided not to rush because they didn't find a place where they'd fit in. We encourage people to go to at least 10-15 houses and not to stop if they didn't find a place where they'd fit. There is a fraternity for every individual. Go visit the different houses and see if there is one for you," Swanburg said.

Formal Recruitment for the sororities began with a kick-off pep rally on Friday night at the Ferst Center followed by four nights of events at the sorority houses, spending more time at fewer houses with each successive day.

Saturday night was Round One, where the women got to visit each of the six national sororities. Sunday night was Round Two, a philanthropy-themed event where the women visited five sororities and participated in a philanthrophic project at each one.

Monday night was Round Three, where the women visited three houses and viewed skits at each one. Tuesday night was "Preferentials", where the women visited two houses and then expressed their preferences at the end of the night.

Bid Day capped off the process on Wednesday, August 23, where the potential members received bids, the formal invitations to join the sororities.

Christie Prevost, vice president of recruitment for the Panhellenic Council, reported that 363 women participated in Formal Recruitment involving National Panhellenic chapters, a significant increase from 301 last year. A total of 290 women ended up joining National Panhellenic Conference sororities.

According to Prevost, among the changes to the Formal Recruitment process this year was a restructuring of the system of matching the participants with the sororities during each day of activities.

"We have a new invitation system. In the past, after each day of Recruitment, the chapters would have a certain number they could invite back. It was all based on statistics. They would make their lists and the girls would have to get up the next morning and see who got their invitations, and if possible make their selection of where they would like to attend," Prevost said.

According to Prevost, sororities wanted to push the fact that this is a mutual selection process this year, so each day after they came back from their events they would write their preferences on a card.

"It emphasized the mutual selection the whole time and it helped girls not get their feelings hurt and reduced the dorm talk, and let girls make decisions for themselves," Prevost said.