In an era when interest in sororities is at a peak, the College's six Panhellenic sororities received their lowest number of Fall-term pledges in five years last month due to the ongoing problem of too few sororities for too many women and rushees' dissatisfaction with the rush system.
While more women than ever dropped out of rush or chose not to accept bids and while a new sorority -- Delta Omega Pi -- looms on the horizon, Delta Gamma sorority remains relatively empty.
Still women claim there are too few sororities for too many women.
Bid acceptances down
Of the 266 women who participated in rush this fall, only 176 actually ended up joining a sorority. About 50 women dropped out of rush before the final round -- 150 percent more than last year.
In addition, about 30 women offered bids chose to hold or decline them.
Last year, 193 women joined a sorority during fall rush after 220 signed up initially to participate in rush. Only 20 women dropped out of rush in 1995 while 17 declined or held bids.
In 1994, about 70 women dropped out of rush before the final round and 212 women ended up joining a sorority that year. Again, 34 women offered bids chose to hold or decline them.
In 1992 and 1993, 213 women joined Panhellenic sororities.
Panhellenic Council Vice President Marcie Handler '97 said she was surprised by the decrease in the number of women joining sororities.
"I have no insight," she said. "It is surprising considering how much work the presidents have done in the last year to promote the unity of the system and to promote the system as a whole."
Reinders said although the number of women rushing this fall may be lower than in the past, by the end of the year, the numbers will equalize.
"This year it may be a little under but women will join winter term and it will reach that 210 number by the end of the year," Reinders said.
Reinders said there are no concerns on the part of the sororities in regard to the number of new members.
"I think all the sororities were pleased with the number of women they recruited for their organizations," she said.
Handler said there were many misconceptions circling the entire rush process such as the belief that the matching process is done by computer.
But Melissa Maggio '99 said matching is "a very complicated and mysterious process that leaves many women feeling like they have been screwed by the complicated Panhellenic sorority rush system."
Handler said so long as Panhell continues to guarantee bids, there is no way around the matching system.
One consequence of the system of guaranteeing bids is that women are often invited back to houses after they have already been dismissed from consideration by that house.
Handler said since the rush process guarantees women a certain number of invitations, houses must compile a release list.
"It is never a big deal because houses have a hard time releasing women in the first place so having a woman invited off the release is never a problem," she said.
Size and Quota Power
The quota per house this year was 35 members -- down from the 42 and 41 member quotas from 1995 and 1994, respectively.
This year, Panhell decided to lower the quota of each house by one -- in an attempt to lower the number of pledges at each house.
Panhell President Jessica Russo '97 said women commonly say sororities are too large.
Handler said Panhell decided to lower the quota by one "because statistically, a very small percentage write all six houses."
In order to be guaranteed a bid, a woman must select all six sororities on her preference card during the last night of rush. In theory, if every woman selected all six houses on her preference card, each woman would be matched with a house with no house above or below quota.
Russo said the reason the new sorority is being discussed is to alleviate the size problem currently plaguing most Panhellenic sororities.
Handler said Panhell wanted a new sorority so it would not have to "lower quota just because we wanted the pledge class smaller. This goes against our main goal to offer every woman a place somewhere in the Greek system."
Despite the decreased quota size and the increased number of rushees this year, one house did not fill to quota -- DG.
Delta Gamma
Of the women who were not accommodated by the Greek system so far this fall, several are holding open bids from DG, a house that consists of about 30 members.
DG initially had only three pledges for the Fall term but shortly afterwards eight additional pledges joined the organization.
The five other Panhellenic sororities each had pledge classes ranging between 28 and the quota of 35.
DG President Kim Papa '97 said, "We have 11 pledges ... and we are currently building a strong winter pledge class."
"Delta Gamma is celebrating its 10th anniversary at Dartmouth this spring and is going to be around for a very long time," Papa said. "Delta Gamma is probably one of the strongest houses on this campus because we are a close-knit group of very diverse people and our national is behind us 100 percent."
Handler said one reason for the low number of pledges at DG might have to do with open bids offered to rushees.
Fewer than 35 women matched with DG during bid matching -- which meant that DG had fewer matches than quota, Handler said. As a result, DG extended open bids to women who did not match at any other house.
Handler said because a rushee may not have been interested in DG in the first place, an open bid may not have perked their interest enough to join.
Handler said she does not know why more women do not join DG compared to other houses.
Papa attributed low pledge numbers in part to ignorance and unwarranted fears on the part of the rushees.
"Unfortunately people on this campus are ignorant and seem to feel that just because a house is small it is weak," Papa said in an e-mail message. "I think many people are afraid of pledging unless there is a guaranteed large pledge class because of many false rumors on this campus that if DG doesn't pledge a large class, we won't be around for much longer."
"The stigma at Dartmouth is that a small chapter has something wrong with it," Papa added. "When 30 women don't bid match and are upset by the way formal rush was run, many of them are wary about joining any organization that is part of the system as a whole."
Despite DG's current small pledge class, the sorority has not always had difficulties recruiting new members.
In 1992, DG had 42 fall pledges -- as many as Sigma Delta and Delta Delta Delta sororities. In 1993, all sororities had low pledge classes because Kappa Delta Epsilon sorority was offered as a new rush alternative.
In 1994, DG experienced its first low pledge count of 14 members. To compensate the next year, DG was placed outside of rush in 1995 in an attempt to boost membership. The process backfired when DG experienced its lowest pledge class ever -- eight members.