The winter sorority rush period ended Thursday evening when campus sororities extended bids to 43 rushees after a condensed six-day process.
When the rush process began last Friday, 52 women planned to rush but three dropped out before round one, according to Panhellenic Council Vice President of Recruitment Zobie Torres '06. Of the 49 women who attended round one, 45 attended round two and 43 were matched with sororities by Panhell.
Although some prospective new members chose to drop out along the way, no women were eliminated from the system by the sororities.
"It was like perfect rush," Torres said.
The standard rush process during Fall term is spread out over 10 days but is condensed to six for winter rush, which sees a much smaller group of women participate. During fall rush, 317 women began the rush process as compared to this term's 49 rushees.
Epsilon Theta Kappa sorority extended 12 bids to prospective new members; Kappa Kappa Gamma and Sigma Delta sororities each extended seven bids; Delta Delta Delta and Kappa Delta Epsilon sororities each extended six bids, and Alpha Xi Delta sorority extended five bids.
New members attended their respective sororities Thursday night at 8 p.m. officially to accept their bids during Bid Acceptance Night.
Last winter, 60 women rushed during Winter term and 53 received bids, numbers that are slightly higher than this year's rush. Torres attributed the winter drop to a rise in the number of fall rushees.
"We had a significant amount more women rushing in the fall this year so that's why it was lower in the winter," Torres said.
Winter rush still consists of all three rounds that take place during fall rush, and the only difference is the shorter period in which they occur. Rushees are required to visit all six houses during round one, may visit up to four sororities during round two, and may visit up to two houses during the final round, called Preference Night. After Preference Night, rushees rank the two houses they visited and Panhell uses a computer program to match the preferences of the potential new members and the sororities.
Rush chairs said that the small amount of rushees simplified rush, even though the process was more hurried than in the fall.
"It's a little hectic but there's so many fewer girls so it's not that big of a deal," Becky Halliwell '06, a rush chair for KDE, said. Halliwell said that the energy level in her house during winter rush was no different than during fall rush.
"I think people are just as excited because the fact is that we can only get a handful more girls for the winter so it's all the more important that we make sure we can get a great group of girls," Halliwell said.
Lydia Gensheimer '06, a rush chair for KKG, thinks it may be easier to get the house involved during winter rush because it happens early in the term.
"It's easier to encourage older sisters to come to rush just because people aren't facing academic deadlines yet," she said.
This is only the second year that the main Greek rush process was held during Fall term with a smaller rush in winter. Previously, the main rush was held in the Winter term, with a smaller rush held in the spring.
