This year's fraternity rush was somewhat stronger than last year's, with a small increase in the number of men accepting bids at the 14 Interfraternity Council houses.
While the number of men who accepted bids rose by about five, this year's rush lacked the numbers parity of last year's fall rush, when eight of the 14 houses gained between 20 and 29 new members.
The range of numbers was wider this year, with Theta Delta Chi fraternity gaining 34 new members and Bones Gate fraternity not reporting the number of new members, which was believed last night to be less than five.
Though it is possible more new members may join in the next few days, Bones Gate, which had only 11 sinks at last fall's rush, could have difficulty if the size of their new pledge class does not increase.
"Any house that gets a really small pledge class could be in trouble just based on the expenses of maintaining the physical plant," IFC President Hondo Sen '00 said. "There were some houses that were hoping to get somewhat bigger classes than they got."
Although the official number of men who rushed this fall will not be available until this weekend, several fraternity presidents said they saw an increase in rush interest during a year in which observers have struggled to predict the effect the Board of Trustee's Social and Residential Life Initiative would have.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon President Thad Glowacki '00 was one of the Greek leaders who said he believes this year's rush was stronger overall at most houses on campus.
"It is a good sign of the continuing strength of the Greek system in spite of the Initiative and the Trustees," he said.
SAE reported 25 sinks, rebounding from only 15 new members last year.
Although Gamma Delta Chi fraternity did not see a large number or rushees, the house will have the second most new members this fall, with 32 after bringing in only 12 new members last fall.
"We had only 13 pledges last year, so we are ecstatic about the new class, there are a lot of great guys. It was a long process, it took a lot of work to get a high number of people at the house," Gamma Delt President Matt Schroeder '00 said.
Alpha Chi Alpha fraternity also rebounded from having just 10 sinks last year. The house will have 16 new members.
Psi Upsilon fraternity reported that 80 rushees visited the house. The house will have 22 new members this fall, which Psi U President Teddy Rice '00 said was right around Psi U's target number.
"We always like to shoot for between 20 and 25 men," Rice said.
Chi Gamma Epsilon received less sinks than last year when they welcomed 29 new members. This year's pledge class will have 21 members.
Zeta Psi and Sigma Nu saw declines from last year's classes with 14 and eight sinks respectively.
"I am definitely very happy with our pledge class," James Mills '00, President of Zeta Psi, said.
With sorority rush already showing an increased interest in the rush process, the same seems to be true for the men, this despite the recent questions regarding the Greek system's future.
"I don't think it is a coincidence. Increased attention has interested more kids. The women had an incredible number of girls and could not hope to accommodate them. Frats seem to be experiencing similar numbers," Rice said.
Chi Heorot fraternity received 25 sinks this year, down slightly from 27 a year ago.
Kappa Kappa Kappa fraternity and Alpha Delta fraternity saw no change in their numbers from last year with 20 and 25 new members respectively.
The rush process for the fraternities officially started this past Monday, when rushees went to houses from 7-9 p.m. This continued on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, though many rushees had already sunk their bids.
A change that was made to the fraternity rush process this year was the creation of a website by the IFC. It was created with the intent to give rushees some more information about the specifics of rush, as well as allow them to officially register for rush.
