After about 220 women showed up to the first sorority rush event last week, very few dropped out as rush week continued, according to Panhellenic Rush Chair Sarah Hempstead.
Hempstead, a College of Communication senior, said the sororities experienced the lowest drop rate ever, meaning that most women returned after the first night.
“Most girls stayed with the recruitment,” she said.
Hempstead attributed this growth to more people knowing that they want to be a part of Greek life.
“There’s a lot of girls already involved with [Greek life],” she said. “When girls come to the informational meeting, they’re pretty sure it’s something they want to do. They used to think it was something to check out.”
Sorority rush ended last week and fraternity rush ends today. More fraternity hopefuls rush in the fall instead of the spring, Inter Fraternity Council Rush Chair and COM sophomore Mike Metz said. Still, fewer men turned out to rush this year than in past years.
“The turnout this year wasn’t so hot,” Metz said. “It’s about the same as it was last year, but we were hoping that it would be higher this semester. The weather didn’t help us out too much.”
For sororities, after the first rush night, a process of mutual selection began where both recruits and the sorority chapters narrowed down their choices and ranked them. By the end, final matches were made and bids were given to the recruits on Jan. 20.
This process of mutual selection proved to be stressful for some of the recruits, they said.
“As recruitment went on, some people didn’t always get the sororities that they had ranked the highest,” said School of Management freshman Deirdre Mills. “I started to get scared that I wouldn’t get invited back to the sororities that I wanted.”
Rush organizers planned a variety of activities for each night to help the women get to know each other. Hempstead, who was elected to her position by the Panhellenic Council, was the primary organizer of rush-week activities, but worked with rush chairs from each chapter.
After an informational meeting on Jan. 21, fraternity rush officially began the following day. The fraternities all held get-to-know-you events, which this year included dinners at Uno’s and Dick’s Last Resort, a tour of the Sam Adams Brewery and poker in the George Sherman Union.
It is important for the pledges to get to know both other recruits and the fraternities’ current members.
“We stress that the pledges get to know each other. Usually, kids end up with a fraternity more because they like other kids who are pledging more than the brothers themselves,” Metz said.
After the events, fraternities extend invitations for interviews to recruits that they like. The interviews take place today, and bids will be given on Thursday morning.
According to Metz, all five fraternities submitted their schedules to him so he could check to make sure that the events corresponded with IFC rules.
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