Within the next few weeks, the Panhellenic Council will vote on a rush proposal released at the end of last term that seeks to semi-randomize the sorority rush process.
"The reason we held off until this term was because we didn't give everyone enough time to look over the proposal," Panhell President Jessica Russo '97 said. "Either we will vote this first week or the second week of the term."
Russo, who is a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority said the rush process needs to change.
"This proposal is a good compromise between a random rush system and a rush system in which the houses have much of the control," she said.
Panhell Vice President Marcie Handler '97 said ideas for changing the rush process were discussed after winter rush.
"We had meetings with rush chairs and presidents of sororities and we got feedback on what needed to be changed," said Handler, who is a member of Epsilon Kappa Theta sorority.
The proposed system divides rush into four rounds.
According to the proposal, in the first and second rounds, rushees visit all six sororities. At the beginning of the second round, each rushee is assigned a random lottery number, but the rushees are not told what their lottery number is.
After their second round at all six houses, the rushees rank the each house on a preference card. Afterwards, the sororities will hold deliberations and nominate women to be on a "first list," which consists of about 40 women, 30 of whom are guaranteed an invitation to that particular house.
The preference cards are evaluated in numerical order according to the assigned the lottery numbers. The rushee is invited back to the first four houses listed on her card. Each house will invite an equal number of rushees to the third round.
According to the proposal, "as the lottery numbers increase the house invite lists will fill up and the rushees will no longer be invited back to their first four choices, but the chances are slim that both a rushees first and second choices will be eliminated."
In the third round, the rushees are assigned a new random lottery number after which rushees attend all four houses to which they were invited back.
The rushees then rank the four houses they visited during the third round on a preference card. The sororities then deliberate and nominate women to be on their "first list" -- a list of about 30 women, 25 of whom are guaranteed an invite back to that particular house.
The preference cards are again selected by a lottery system. As the lottery numbers increase the house invite lists will fill up and the rushees will "no longer necessarily be invited back to their first three choices -- but the chances are slim that both a rushee's first and second choice will be eliminated," according to the proposal.
In the fourth round, rushees are again assigned a random lottery number and they are required to attend three houses to which they were invited back.
The houses then have deliberations as they do in the current system -- houses create a "first list" of the number of rushees that meets their quota and then rank the rest of the rushees.
At the end of this round, "the rushees rank the houses which they visited during Preference Night," according to the proposal. "If the rushee ranks all three houses she visited, she is guaranteed a bid at one of the three houses. The rushee may not list a house on her preference card which she did not visit during Preference Night."
Each house will give an equal number of bids -- the number of rushees who sign preference cards after Preference Night divided by six.
"As the lottery numbers increase, however, the house invite lists will fill up and the rushees will no longer receive a bid from their first choice," according to the proposal.
Handler said much of the concern over the rush process is in reference to deliberations.
"People were unhappy with the way deliberations were held -- with sororities deliberating on the rushees after meeting them for only a short period of time," she said.
Russo cited the superficiality of rush as a main concern of women. "You meet someone for five minutes and then vote on her."
"We don't want the rushees to feel like they are being scrutinized," Handler said. "We want to emphasize that the rushees have as much say as the houses do."
Handler said the Council also wanted to reduce the "rejection factor."
"People seemed disturbed about the way women are chosen in sororities," Handler said. "We don't want the rushees to feel like they are being scrutinized."
Russo said the Panhell executives asked for contributions and suggestions from all sorority members in creating the proposal.
An explanation of the changes, open to suggestions, was sent to sorority members at the end of last term, Handler said.
Russo said the lottery system is based on ideas from former Panhell President Dani Brune '96, who is a member of Delta Delta Delta sorority, and former Epsilon Kappa Theta president Susie Ettinger '96.
Brune and Ettinger wrote, "the lottery system is an attempt to battle the exclusivity and superficiality of the rush process," in a column they submitted to The Dartmouth last term.
As of last night, both Ettinger and Brune said they had not yet read the proposal.
For the proposal to pass, a majority of four votes are needed to pass the proposal, Handler said. Each sorority has one vote, she said.
