Although representatives from Dartmouth's Panhellenic Council said that the new Select and Rank sorority rush system increased the number of women receiving bids -- likely referring to the 22 more bids extended this year -- only 75.6 percent of rush participants received a bid this fall, compared to the 82.5 percent who received bids last year. Additionally, some participants accused Panhell of unfair practices.
The increased number of bids came primarily from Alpha Phi sorority and Epsilon Kappa Theta sorority, which extended a combined 31 more bids this term than last fall. The number of bids offered by other sororities varied only slightly.
The bid quota for each sorority dropped to 38 this year from 40, although all sororities except Alpha Xi Delta and Delta Delta Delta exceeded the quota.
The high number of women rushing this year, however, ultimately led to a smaller proportion receiving a bid. Of the 361 women who began rush this year, 275 signed preference cards and 273 received bids. Panhell refused to specify the number of bids offered to women who signed preference cards and the number of "snap bids" extended to women who did not sign preference cards. Panhell also would not release the number of women who dropped out of the rush process.
Last year, 251 of the 304 women who began the rush process received bids.
Melissa Lokensgard '09, the vice president of recruiting for Panhell, said in an e-mail that the new system allowed for a more even distribution of new members among Dartmouth's seven Panhellenic sororites.
"This is the primary reason why fall recruitment was ... a tremendous success from Panhell's point of view," she said.
The reduced quotas were set by a National Panhellenic Council representative, Lokensgard said. Expanding the quotas would not guarantee that everyone would get into her preferred house, she added.
Regardless of the number of bids extended, some rush participants criticized Panhell's practices during the process.
Several sophomore women interviewed by The Dartmouth for this article wished to remain anonymous because they plan on going through the women's rush process this winter.
A sophomore woman, who wished to remain anonymous, said she believes that Panhell was aware that not all of the women participating in rush could receive bids.
"They must have counted on over a third of them dropping out for the math to work," she said.
One student said she believed Panhell misinformed participants about their rush prospects.
"What Panhell told us is that everyone gets in somewhere they belong in the end, but I know a lot of people who didn't get in anywhere," she said.
One woman was disqualified from rush after two members of AZD told Panhell executives that she had been rude and disrespectful during a rush party, according to two anonymous senior sources, one of whom said that Panhell executives disqualified the woman without verifying the story.
"They didn't even talk to the rush chairs at AZD to see if these complaints were legitimate," the source said.
The woman was allowed to rejoin the rush process after the Panhell executives spoke with the AZD rush chairs and found that they knew nothing about the incident, according to several sources. AZD president Lauren Denatale '09 denied the incident, although The Dartmouth's sources said the involved parties were told not to speak about it.
During round one of rush, participants attend parties at all seven Panhell sororities. Under the Select and Rank system, they then choose their top four organizations and rank the remaining three, a change from last fall when women ranked all seven sororities. A Panhell computer uses these selections and lists provided by the sororities to match participants with a maximum of four organizations, to which the participants return for round two. Following the second round, rush participants select their two favorite organizations and rank the remaining two.
For the final night of rush, Panhell distributes up to two invitations to preference-night parties to each woman. After attending the parties, the women "pref" the organizations they wish to join, and in most cases, receive a bid from one of the sororities they visited.
The new system allowed for more even distribution of invitations for round two of rush, Lokensgard said. Setting a maximum of four round-two invitations per participant reduced the number of women who received fewer than two second-round invites, she said.
Many women said they chose to drop out of rush because they were not invited back to organizations they preferred, they disliked the long rush process or they decided they could not commit time to a sorority.
Theta rush chair Kaili Lambe '09, however, said she believed the new system allowed women to learn about the entire sorority system, instead of focusing on a specific house.
"I think [rush] was more exploratory this time than it has been in the past," Lambe said. "A lot of those women who weren't really sure found a place that they love."
An anonymous participant said she knew before entering rush that it could be arbitrary and decided to drop out after receiving only one invitation for preference night.
"I was told from the beginning that the computer makes it a very iffy and random process," she said.
Alex Robinson '11, who received a bid at her first-choice house, said that she personally enjoyed rush but said she knew of many women who had difficulty with the process.
"I think it's kind of confusing when the sisters don't know how high they're ranked on the girl's list and the women don't know how high they're ranked on the sisters' list," she said.
Panhell chose to implement the new system because it is the preferred method of the National Panhellenic Council and was successful during rush last winter, Lokensgard said.
