Beginning tomorrow, hordes of eager sophomore men will head out to their favorite fraternities, just like any other weekend night. However, on this occasion the sophomores will not be looking to play a game of pong and meet single ladies. Instead, they will be seeking out an even more elusive target: a bid to join the house of their choice. After a mere two hours of man-flirting, most guys will shake out at their first-choice fraternity and head home to wait while the current brothers deliberate over bids, dings and callbacks. Later that night, the majority of male rushees will be invited to join one of the fraternities on campus and pledging will begin.
This process is in stark contrast to what the sophomore women have been experiencing since the beginning of this week. Unlike the relatively painless rush process for the men of Dartmouth, the women must go through round after round of grueling and divisive rush. I have heard the horror stories of girls getting blacklisted at a particular sorority for stealing a sister's elliptical machine at the fitness center. Have you hooked up with a sister's freshman-year boyfriend? Better luck next term. And you'd better not wear too revealing of an outfit or else you could be labeled too promiscuous for membership.
After many rounds, it will be a computer program, not necessarily the votes of the existing sisterhoods, which will determine where each sophomore girl is placed. In fact, it is even possible for a rushee to preference a certain house, for that house to want that rushee, and for that girl to nevertheless end up elsewhere. It seems pretty intuitive to me that if a girl and a house want each other, the match should be made. After all, that is how it works in the fraternity system. It seems to me that the sorority rush system is at least sub-optimal, if not broken. Joining a Greek organization is an inherently selective process; there is no need for a computer to be making these decisions.
Now, I realize that one of the reasons that fraternities can be a little more self-selecting is the fact that by the time rush arrives, most sophomore guys have a pretty good idea of which house they want to join. They've spent all of freshman year visiting various houses, meeting upperclass brothers and deciding which style of pong they prefer. For many, rush is a foregone conclusion. Two years ago when I rushed, I stopped by a few houses as a courtesy and then headed to my first-choice house, where I spent the majority of my time. A few hours later, I sank my bid, and the rest is history. The story is different for sororities largely because of the fact that most sororities are unable to host social events and as a result many sophomore women are unfamiliar with the dynamics of each house. They need a more formal rush process in order to get that exposure and subsequently make a more informed decision. The policy instituted by national sororities to ban events with alcohol from their chapter houses was likely created to improve the quality of the sisterhood and emphasize bonding in a positive way. But the unintended consequence of this rule has been damaging to the sisterhoods by hindering their recruiting efforts.
It seems like every year there is an outcry over the nature of the female rush process ,and every year sororities vow to improve their relations with freshmen women. I am not sure to what extent this has happened, but there is clearly still room for improvement. I understand that not every sophomore woman will get a bid from her first choice, but it should not be a mysterious computer program that makes this decision. The more we can do to make the system less mechanical, the better. It makes perfect sense for sophomore women to visit each house at least once, to meet the sisterhood and get an idea if it is a place they would want to join. After that, however, girls should indicate which house they want to join and the upperclass sisters should hand out bids as they see fit. If one house wants 60 girls, so be it. We ought to have faith that a sorority will limit its class sizes for the sake of house unity. If a girl does not receive a bid from her first choice, she can join a different house. This is how it works with fraternities, and there is no reason why it cannot work for sororities.
Joining a Greek organization can be one of the biggest decisions that a Dartmouth student makes in his or her four years here. The closer we can get to making sure everyone ends up some place they want, the better.
