Sororities in the Panhellenic Council will likely reject a proposal by the administration to move rush to the fifth week of sophomore fall, Greek leaders said on Tuesday night. Fraternity leaders, describing the general fraternity reaction as "mixed," said they will investigate the proposal in the coming weeks.
Throughout the Greek system as a whole, "there was a lot of negative reaction to the proposal," Greek Leadership Council Moderator Jonathan Lazarow '05 said.
Sorority officials contended that a modified rush would irrevocably impair new member education efforts, eliminate the community building that occurs during pledge term and needlessly impose on current sisters during a time of the term often crammed with exams.
"Pretty much every sorority is against moving rush to the end of the fifth week in Fall term," Panhellenic Council President Krista Sande-Kerback '05 said.
Sorority leaders particularly voiced concern that holding rush in the middle of the term would make it complicated both for prospective new members and for current ones. The length of sorority rush has varied in past years, but the process generally takes more than one week and can run as long as three weeks. Panhellenic rush involves a substantial evening obligation throughout the recruitment period.
"Rush is such a time-intensive process for us," Sande-Kerback said. "There's exams and midterms all the time by the fifth week of the term, and we're trying to be very conscious of that."
Sorority leaders emphasized their commitment to further discussion with Dartmouth administrators, especially praising recent dialogue with Dean of the College James Larimore. However, Sande-Kerback predicted that sororities would not pursue any changes that result in rush occurring later than the beginning of the term.
"For Panhellenic groups, it's an unrealistic proposition," Lazarow added. "It just can't happen."
Fraternity representatives expressed a desire to better understand several requirements that College administrators mentioned in conjunction with the proposal before making any decision on the feasibility of a modified fall rush. The College's fraternities are nonetheless seriously discussing the possibility of change, according to GLC officials.
"The Interfraternity Council doesn't feel comfortable deciding at this time, but they're going to ask for clarification of the different points of the proposal before they consider accepting it," GLC public relations representative David Geenberg '05 said. "Everyone wants to work together with the administration."
A modified rush could prove especially problematic for national fraternities because such organizations typically have carefully defined new member orientation programs. Nationally-fixed programs would almost certainly not fit into a modified four-week pledge period.
New member programming issues are likely to be the most serious concern for fraternities if the proposal is accepted, Geenberg emphasized.
"There would either have to be less new member education or it would have to get spread out over a greater period of time," Geenberg said.
Unlike the single-sex Greek organizations, the College's three coed fraternities may accept the proposal, Coed Council president Bradley Tavares '05 said.
"Any movement that increases the total amount of time to rush is beneficial to Coeds," Tavares said. "If the proposal is finalized, Coeds will probably accept it."
The abbreviated length of a new member's first term in a house will nonetheless place a serious burden on coed houses if the change is accepted, Tavares noted.
"We will have to hold all of our events and risk management education in about four weeks, and those condensed events will take place in the middle of midterms and finals," Tavares said.
