While some female undergraduates participate in sorority rush and many sophomore men make final decisions as to whether they will rush a fraternity, other undergraduates are taking the opportunity to join another kind of social organization -- Dartmouth's coed houses and undergraduate societies.
Rush events are taking place this week at Alpha Theta and The Tabard coeducational fraternities as well as a social and informational event at the Amarna undergraduate society. Rush events are scheduled to take place at Phi Tau coeducational fraternity on Oct. 5 and 6.
The house presidents and rush chairs who spoke with The Dartmouth all described the atmosphere at their upcoming socials, informational sessions and rush events as "informal," "relaxed" or "friendly."
Formal rush will take place at Tabard tonight while Amarna will host an ice cream social and Alpha Theta will hold an informational session for those interested in house membership.
Like single-sex fraternities and sororities, Phi Tau, Alpha Theta and Tabard all have rush in some form. However, none of the three use a formalized system such as the ones in utilized at other CFS organizations.
In fact, as a result of the diversity of membership policies and the ways in which the houses recruit new members, the three coed Greek houses do not coordinate their rush schedules.
"The basic idea behind our entire rush process is ... we want houses to get to know candidates and candidates to get to know houses," Alpha Theta rush chair Nina Basu '02 said. "You don't have to dress a certain way, you don't have to behave in any certain way except to just be yourself."
Tabard is completely non-selective, while Alpha Theta and Phi Tau offer bids on a nominally selective basis.
"It's very hard not to get a bid at Alpha Theta," Basu said, noting that no bid request has been denied by the house in over 10 years.
Undergraduate societies Amarna and Panarchy do not have rush at all. Both allow new members to join at any time.
"I believe this is one of the most supportive houses on campus," Amarna president Baynard Russell '01 said. "It's due to an atmosphere where if you want to join the house, we don't stop you."
Amarna, however, generally has an open house each term for those interested in joining the coed society, such as this evening's event, intended to introduce prospective members to the house.
"One of the problems I think all the coed houses have is that people don't know about them," Russell said. "This is kind of our time to get our name out."
Panarchy, on the other hand, has neither rush nor proactive member recruitment.
Overall, Amarna, Tabard, Phi Tau and Alpha Theta have modest expectations for the number of new members that will join the various organizations during the fall, generally from 5-10. Members can join during all terms, however.
Amarna's ice cream social begins tonight at 9 p.m., as does rush at The Tabard and the Alpha Theta information session in the Hyphen. A social will take place in the Alpha Theta house from 8-10 p.m. on Thursday, with the organization's rush scheduled for Oct. 3 and 4.
