Dartmouth fraternities accepted a handful of new members this weekend as they opened their doors for winter rush on Saturday and Sunday nights. Consistent with previous years, fewer men sunk bids and fewer fraternities accepted new members than in Fall term rush.
The Interfraternity Council members voted to officially shorten this year's winter rush process to one mandatory night with an optional second night. Previously, there have been two optional nights of winter rush on Sunday and Monday after a mandatory night on Saturday.
The new policy, effective for this year, reflects the manner in which fraternities have been conducting Winter term rush for the past several years, IFC vice president of recruitment Thomas Healy '08 said.
"Officially, houses have been required to be open, but most typically do not hold Sunday or Monday rush," Healy said in an e-mail to the Dartmouth. Healy said he believed most fraternities remained closed last night. Monday night rush has now been officially eliminated.
Fewer fraternities accepted new members this winter than last winter-- a maximum of seven this year compared to last year's eight -- and some fraternities declined to hold winter rush altogether.
"We already have a pledge class of close to 30 kids and traditionally we do not hold winter rush at all," David Chattman '08, the vice-president of Theta Delta Chi fraternity, said. "If someone expresses interest in TDX in the winter, we hold rush for just that person, but otherwise we don't usually take winter pledges."
Alpha Delta fraternity, which follows a similar system, also did not hold rush this term.
Alpha Chi Alpha and Chi Gamma Epsilon fraternities each had two men sink bids on Saturday, while Psi Upsilon, Phi Delta Alpha and Chi Heorot fraternites accepted no new members. As of press time, seven men had sunk bids at Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and five at Kappa Kappa Kappa fraternity, although both fraternities did not have a final count at press time. The number of new members at Sigma Nu fraternity were not finalized at press time.
Chi Gam president Chase Carpenter '08 said he was satisfied with rush this winter. He added that the shortened rush period did not affect the process and Chi Gam received comparable numbers of new members this winter as in the past.
"Our approach to rush is more or less the same, regardless of term," he said. "I am very excited about the new additions to our house and look forward to them becoming productive members of our house soon."
Sig Ep rush chair Charles Stoebe '08 said he was happy with the success of his fraternity's winter rush but stressed the difficulty of getting to know potential new members in the winter.
"In the fall, there are a lot of events to get to know the rushees better," he said. "In the winter, the timing is too quick and if we're lucky, we'll have one event to try and meet the prospective members.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity did not respond to requests for comment by press time. Bones Gate fraternity declined to give an accurate count of the number of new members it accepted.
