Rush is one of the most hotly debated aspects of the Greek system, and yet many freshmen -- and even some of their more seasoned classmates -- do not understand completely how rush works. The Dartmouth asked the leaders of the Greek system to explain rush and why their systems work the way they do.
Three Nights in a Suit
Fraternity rush occurs on three consecutive nights -- this term running from Monday through tonight. Dress is formal. All of the members of a house usually attend the house on rush nights.
If at the end of the night a student wants to join a house, he "shakes out." All of the members of the house line up outside the door and each rushee walks down the line, shaking members' hands.
After a night of rush, house members deliberate, then issue bids. Deliberations involve "making sure you get a name to a face and know how everyone else in the house feels," said Inter-Fraternity Council President Sunil Bhagavath '03.
Rushees usually go into the first night of rush with an idea of which house they want to shake out at, according to Bhagavath. Because of that, most shake out on the first night.
If a house feels it wants to get to know a rushee better, they may issue a "callback" to the next night's rush instead of a bid.
Bhagavath was hard-pressed to think of disadvantages to fraternities' more informal rush process.
"I think it's a little too much to ask people to attend every house," he said, although he noted that the IFC encourages rushees to attend four or more houses.
"It works out better for everybody to have a less formal system. It's easier on houses and it's easier on participants."
Sorority Rush Explained
Sorority rush is a much more complex process than fraternity rush. The process lasts longer -- where fraternity rush wraps up in three days, sorority rush lasts a full week (with two one-day breaks).
The duration is mainly due to the Panhellenic Council's requirement that all rushees visit all six sororities.
Over the four rounds of sorority rush, both houses and rushees narrow down respective lists of those they would consider after each round. Panhell then takes these lists and offers invitations for the next round of rush.
The first round of rush, "round zero," is the philanthropy round. Panhell President Ann Chang '03 explained that the purpose of this round is to make rushees who had no experience with sororities more comfortable. This winter, round zero kicked rush off on Sunday.
After round zero comes round one, a two-day event in which rushees visit all six sorority houses. Small groups of rushees guided by rho chis -- members of sororities who have disaffiliated from their houses for the duration of rush -- attend parties at houses for 45 minutes each, three houses a night.
Panhell tells houses how many rushees they can invite back to their houses. After each night of parties, each sorority has its own, confidential deliberations -- Chang said each house maintains its own method for conducting these -- and at the end of the round each house gives Panhell a categorized list of rushees, divided into categories based on how willing the houses would be to invite a candidate back.
Panhell takes these lists and then gives rushees a list of at least three houses to which they are invited back. Panhell tries to make sure candidates will be distributed relatively evenly across the houses in the next round when considering the lists of houses it gives to the rushees, Chang said.
Rushees then choose either three or four houses they would like to return to and tell their rho chis, who submit their choices to Panhell on scantron sheets.
"These three or four houses are houses where she has a chance of getting a bid," Chang said.
Round two began Tuesday and continues until Thursday. Rushees attend parties both nights, which are followed by another round of house deliberations, and the submission of another, shorter, categorized list.
For their part, rushees talk with their rho chis and rank houses according to preference. These lists are submitted to Panhel.
Panhell takes the houses' lists and the rushees' lists and give rushees one or two houses to which they are invited back for round three, also known as "preference night" or just "pref. night."
Clear-cut cases -- for example, when a girl's top-choice house also ranks her near the top of their list -- are decided by a computer. All other decisions are made by Panhell.
"Houses' lists are so open in each round up to pref. night that more weight is given to women's preferences," said Chang. "We try to honor the request of the houses by sending back girls who are interested in those houses," while maintaining a balanced number of rushees at each house.
"It's not very easy," said Chang of deciding on invite lists. "But it's a very sensitive process, especially from the Panhellenic side."
Although any girls who do not drop out or violate Panhell's rush rules are guaranteed to be invited back to at least three houses for round two, Chang was hesitant to say whether she would guarantee that rushees would be invited to a house for round three.
"Pref. night is when houses do their best to sell their house," Chang said of the round set for Friday this winter. "They're really trying to bring in women that they've fallen in love with."
Pref. night ceremonies mean something very different for each house, Chang said. "Some houses perform a ritual, some houses just carry on conversation. Each house gives a clear impression of what each house stands for." (And, Chang assured, there is no blood drawn.)
After the round, rushees return to the scantron forms to indicate their preference. Again Panhell takes the houses' lists and the rushees' preferences, and Panhell then issues bids. If a rushee decides to "sink" the bid, she is a new member of the sorority.
If a rushee goes to a house's pref. night, it usually means the house is going to offer them a bid, although there are exceptions, Chang said.
"I believe that the Panhellenic Council before us handed out bids to approximately 96 percent of the women who completed round three," Chang told The Dartmouth in a Blitzmail message.
Fair Practice and the Exclusivity Question
Panhell has a number of rules for how to conduct rush fairly. One is that rushees cannot talk to other rushees, members of sororities or anyone else about the decisions they're making.
"While they're going through recruitment, they're advised to not consult their peers about decisions they should be making for themselves," said Chang. If someone registers a complaint with Panhell about a rushee, the offending party could be removed by Panhell from the current term's rush, Chang said.
Members of houses are also told not to "extend presence" to rushees. That includes, for example, inviting one of the rushees to dinner. All infractions are settled by Chang directly.
One controversial practice during sorority rush is blacklisting, in which a girl tells her house that a particular rushee could not join the house under any circumstances.
Chang said that blacklisting only happens if a member of the house would question the integrity of the house if it allowed a particular rushee in, to the point even of disaffiliating from the house, because of a strong personal experience the woman had with the rushee.
"That doesn't happen very much, but there's not much we can do if that happens," Chang said, explaining that a sorority would simply put the girl's name on the bottom of their list with no further explanation. "Panhell will never know the reason why a woman is blacklisted, but as a member, I know that cases like that exist."
Chang also said that it was impossible that a woman could be blacklisted from all six houses or the entire Panhell system.
"There are some inherent flaws in the recruitment system," Chang said at one point while explaining why women could be sent to houses in the second round that had not put them on the top of their lists.
"A lot of it is based on first impressions," she continued. "What makes a good sister? ...or is it they're willing to contribute to the house? That doesn't always come across on the first two nights."
Asked how she responded to charges that the Greek system was inherently exclusive, Chang answered, "I say that the system as a whole strives to be inclusive -- the system is made up of individuals. It's up to them to make the system more inclusive."
When Bhagavath, the IFC president, was asked the same question, he answered "I think it's a tough thing to say. The Greek system here is very open to campus -- I mean, what kind of house would keep their doors open all the time?
"The numbers that don't get into any house is small. If you want to rush you should be able to."
Co-eds' Disparate Approaches
Each of the three co-ed houses has a different system for doing rush, according to Co-ed Council President Jason Pavel '04.
Alpha Theta has a system very close to the traditional fraternity system, with two nights of rush (the second is this Thursday night, the first was a week before) and shakeouts at the end.
Phi Tau has a formal rush night tonight, but even after then anyone can rush the house at anytime and may or may not be issued a bid.
At Tabard anyone can rush at any time and they are guaranteed of receiving a bid if they do so.
