Although fall rush is over for campus fraternities and sororities, coed rush is just getting underway with The Tabard and Phi Tau coed fraternities beginning their rolling rush processes and Alpha Theta holding two nights of rush on Oct. 20 and 25.
Alpha Theta's rush process is the "most fraternity-like" of the coed houses because of its two official evenings of rush, Alpha Theta President Daniel Simons '06 said.
Each night of rush will be a two-hour meet and greet during which rushees can mingle with Alpha Theta members over Chinese food or pizza. After each night of rush, members of Alpha Theta will deliberate and then extend bids.
Alpha Theta, whose membership is currently around 35 members, hopes to achieve a membership of about 50, Simons said.
He expects 10 to 20 rushees this fall, with two to six rushees during Winter and Spring terms.
Alpha Theta will not turn away new members once they hit a target number, but the organization is "selective," Simons said.
"If people seem friendly, especially if they've been around a lot, we'll probably give them a bid," Simons said.
Phi Tau and The Tabard, however, use a rolling rush process during which new members can join the house at any time. At Phi Tau, rushees sign the organization's rush book if they are interested in joining the house, and members deliberate at their weekly meetings before extending bids to potential pledges.
At the time of publication, the organization had two pledges and expects about four to 10 pledges for the term, a range that Phi Tau's rush chair, Sarah Sticker '07, considers average for one term.
The Tabard uses a similar process, which allows rushees to sink bids at anytime, but they do not deliberate about who to admit.
"We're all-inclusive, so it's like, 'Oh, you want to join our house? Go right ahead!'" said Abram Coley '07, The Tabard's rush chair.
Coley expects 15 to 20 pledges this term and five to 10 during subsequent rush terms.
"We let in everyone, or conversely, we turn no one away," he said.
Both houses, although utilizing an ongoing rush process, hold one official rush event during which rushees meet members of the house and learn about the organization. Phi Tau's formal event will be held Tuesday from 7 to 9 p.m. and The Tabard's one-hour event was held last Wednesday.
Tabard recruits new members by using "posters, word of mouth, wild parties, [and] opening our doors and seeing who walks in," Coley said.
Alpha Theta recruits rushees using posters and sign-up sheets at their open events, but a lot of rushees are friends of members.
"A lot of it is word of mouth," Simons said.
About 10 rushees attended last week's informal information session at the house, and Simons is confident about this term's rush turnout.
"We're a small house, and we like it that way," Simons said. "But we're expecting a decent rush class of around 15, but of course everyone is welcome to rush."
This year, the second consecutive year that coed rush is being held during the fall, the Coed Council coordinated the events of the three organizations to make sure that rush events did not conflict.
"We're maximizing the opportunities that the students have to be exposed to all three houses," said Robert Butts '06 of the Coed Council.
Butts stressed the importance of getting students to visit the coed houses and to interact with the members.
"They may be able to find something that they wouldn't have been able to find in a single-sex house," Butts said, "and that they wouldn't have expected to find in a Greek house."
