The Panhellenic Council presented its plan for a new local sorority to freshman women last night at a rush information panel.
The formation of the new house will depend mostly on a core group of women from the Class of 1996 who commit to joining the organization this term.
"We need about 40 committed women who will stay out of the rush process," said Rachel Perri '94, president of Panhell, which governs Dartmouth's sororities. "They will be developing the sorority, making the constitution and doing everything else that the College leaves up to the individual houses."
All unaffiliated women are invited to commit to the house before fall. A commitment to the new house exempts the women from the rush process.
A regular fall sorority rush will be held for the five existing sororities. Women who go through the rush process and do not join one of the currently existing sorority are still eligible to join the new sorority.
The new group will inherit the building that currently houses Xi Kappa Chi sorority, which will be officially dissolved at the beginning of Fall term. The formation of the new house was contingent upon Xi Kappa Chi dissolving because the College has stopped adding houses to the Greek system.
"This is not a seventh organization. The College will not allow that," Perri said. "I do have my personal problems with this, especially when there are 15 fraternities and only six sororities."
The house has been given the provisional name Kappa Delta Epsilon, which takes one Greek letter from the name of every other campus sorority. That "shows the unity" of the system, said Katy Horner '94, president of Delta Gamma sorority.
But Perri said the name of the new group will ultimately be decided by the women who develop it.
The new sorority's founding members will be assisted by the entire Panhellenic system. "It will not be the blind leading the blind. There will be plenty of support," Perri said.
The demise of Xi Kappa Chi followed several years of declining membership and financial difficulties at a time when other campus sororities began bursting at the seams.
"It will be better for the system as a whole if more women are involved and they are more spread out," Perri said.
The College has pointed to the Panhellenic system as an exclusive student organization, according to Perri. She blamed the College for putting additional sororities on hold.
"We want as many people as possible to be involved in the sorority system," Perri said. "We do not want to have to turn anyone away. By limiting us to six, the College is the one making us exclusive."
