Despite ongoing efforts to make the rush process fair and accessible, sorority systems at Dartmouth and across the country maintain that the practice of guaranteeing bids is an impractical and all but unattainable goal.
Instead, leaders argue, a rush process which attempts to reconcile the preferences of both potential new members and organizations produces an inevitable degree of uncertainty, though the percentage of women given acceptances often varies widely among institutions.
While a policy of guaranteeing bids to all women who register for sorority rush has never officially existed at Dartmouth, in 1997 and 1998 all women who completed the rush process were matched with a house.
Such a result was possible when rush classes were smaller, according to Panhellenic Council President Ann Chang '03, but the number of students who sign up for rush is not the sole determinant of whether bids can be guaranteed.
"There are extreme cases we could not anticipate," said Chang.
"If a woman is having trouble with academics ... or is bearing stresses, be it emotional, physical or financial, then the woman may be advised to consider recruitment in the spring."
Still, Chang said, Dartmouth's Panhellenic Council -- the organization which runs rush -- has "one of the highest" bid-offering rates among national Panhellenic organizations. According to Chang, of those women who reached the third round of rush last year approximately 96 percent were offered bids.
Additionally, some women typically drop out of the rush process of their own volition, Chang said, though very few typically elect to do so. Only six women withdrew from the process during winter rush last year.
At other institutions, however, the percentage of women offered bids -- as well as the number who withdraw from rush -- tends to vary considerably.
According to figures released by the Panhellenic Council of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, only 75 percent of 512 women participating in rush -- held last August -- eventually joined a sorority. UNC's director of Greek affairs, Jay Anhorn, told The Daily Tar Heel that the drop was due largely to withdrawals rather than actual cuts from the rush process.
Cornell University, which this year has 550 women registered for sorority rush, according to Panhellenic Association President Lindsay Williams, typically places "about 98 to 99 percent" of women.
Though new member quotas based on the total number of women rushing insure that enough openings exist to accommodate all women, Williams said that the Panhellenic Association simply cannot guarantee bids to potential new members.
"The woman chooses the house and the house chooses the woman, but sometimes a match just can't be made," she said. Williams cited the example of a practice known as "suicide," when a woman chooses only one house as her preferred choice in a round when three choices are recommended. If her selected house does not invite her back for the following round, she is cut from the rush process.
At the University of Virginia, which is host to 16 sororities, Inter-Sorority Council President Whitney Eck said it would be "very difficult" for her organization to guarantee bids.
"There are more women than there are spots in houses," she said. "Also, some women realize that it's not for them and decide they don't want to participate."
Only one or two percent of women who complete the rush process fail to receive bids, Eck said, though a far greater number withdraw from rush before the final round.
Speaking to concerns that the Dartmouth's sorority system might be perceived as exclusive in failing to guarantee bids to all women, Chang argued that the Panhellenic Council is harmed by the College's moratorium on the creation of single-sex houses in the face of continued strong interest in joining the Greek system. Currently, there are only six recognized sororities as compared to 12 fraternities, though nearly as many women as men are Greek-affiliated.
"If the administration wanted us to be less exclusive, then they need to help us in doing so," Chang said. "I would hope that if people wanted to guarantee bids, they would be willing to make concessions themselves."
