Correction Appended
Fraternities accepted 14 men during men's Winter rush, according to Interfraternity Council Rush Chair Michael Adelman '10, a significant decrease from the 27 students who sank bids last winter. Fraternity members attributed the change to the presence of Zeta Psi fraternity on campus during Fall rush, Adelman said.
The majority of houses opted not to participate in Winter rush, he added.
"Most houses had a successful Fall and didn't want to change anything," he said.
Five fraternities accepted new members Alpha Chi Alpha fraternity saw three men sink bids; Chi Gamma Epsilon fraternity, two; Kappa Kappa Kappa fraternity, four; Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, three; and Sigma Nu fraternity, two, Adelman said. Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity participated in rush but did not extend bids to any of the attendees, he said.
Last year, 27 men sunk bids at fraternities during winter rush and 16 sunk bids in 2008, as previously reported in The Dartmouth.
"There just wasn't as big of a pool of winter guys who remained unaffiliated to rush in the winter," he said.
The pool of 23 rushees that came to Sig Ep this term was slightly smaller than the group that came to last Winter's rush, fraternity president Eric Schwager '10 said in an e-mail to The Dartmouth. He added that Sig Ep is excited to have three new members.
Alpha Chi President Scott Niehaus '10 said his fraternity saw a strong showing for Winter rush. Alpha Chi did not take as many new members during Winter rush last year but went into rush this year with the attitude that "if there were some good guys who could contribute to the house we were definitely going to take them," he said. He estimated that members offered bids to roughly 30 percent of the students who visited the house.
There was some concern that the impact of the presence of Beta and Zete during the fall recruitment process might negatively impact the pledge class size, Niehaus said.
"That was definitely a worry, but it didn't end up hurting us," he said.
Dennis Zeveloff '12 said he entered the Fall rush process unsure of what he was looking for. He rushed again this Winter and received a bid from Sig Ep. He said that the smaller pool of houses to chose from during the Winter made his decision much easier this term.
"I think more guys than usual rushed in the Fall, maybe because Beta and Zeta were both new," he said.
Update: Zete offered bids to 13 of the 27 men who rushed the fraternity, according to Conrad Scoville '12, co-rush chair for Zete. Twelve of the bids have been accepted, Scoville said in an e-mail to The Dartmouth.
Scoville is a member of The Dartmouth staff.
Zete did not have a target number of bids for Winter rush, according to Karl Grunseich '10, president of Zete. Instead, Zete members were seeking men "who we thought would make a good addition to the house and help build our organization as we continue to grow," Grunseich said in an e-mail to The Dartmouth.
