The recently concluded recruitment period brought larger pledge classes to coeducational fraternities compared to Fall recruitment events in previous years, Coed Council president Serena Nelson '12, who also serves as Alpha Theta coed fraternity membership chair, said.
This term's large coed pledge classes are the result of escalated efforts by Alpha Theta, Phi Tau coed fraternity and the Tabard coed fraternity to increase their visibility on campus, according to Nelson.
"I know all three houses have added more open events to their schedules," Nelson said. "I think a lot of our programming and recruitment events are nonalcoholic."
Nonalcoholic events have attracted many students who abstain from drinking to the coed fraternities, Nelson said.
Tabard currently has a pledge class of 12 members, according to Tabard president Chris Valleau '12. This number will continue to rise throughout the term because new members can join during meetings any Wednesday night, he said.
Nine of these new members joined the weekend of Oct. 7 and the remaining three joined during last Wednesday's meetings, Valleau said. Valleau expects one more student to sink a bid at meetings this Wednesday, he said.
At this time last fall, Tabard had a pledge class of six members, The Dartmouth previously reported.
"I think last year we had smaller numbers than normal, so I think this year is back to normal," Valleau said. "All the terms tend to be pretty much the same."
The increased size of Tabard's pledge class has deviated from recent trends, according to Nelson.
"[Tabard was] having membership problems in recent years and had been working hard to do more recruitment, and it's paying off," Nelson said.
Phi Tau has extended 15 bids so far and received 12 new members including one graduate student since the beginning of this term, according to Phi Tau rush chair Kenneth Lai '12. Of these new members, 10 received their bids this term, while two received bids during previous terms but chose to sink their bids this Fall, according to Lai.
Phi Tau had offered 11 new bids as of this time Fall 2010.
"This is the largest pledge class in recent memory," Lai said. "This term's pledges come from all over the place some are people who we've known for a long time, some are people we've just met at rush, some are friends of brothers, some are in certain groups that other brothers are in. But we have all sorts of people in our pledge class this term."
At Alpha Theta, 12 individuals sank bids out of the 14 people who officially rushed this term, Alpha Theta president Philip Winsor '12 said. The number of new members is "about average for a Fall term," he said.
"We see something like 10 to 15 usually in the fall, somewhere around eight-ish in the winter, and fewer than that in the spring and summer," Winsor said.
The rush processes of the three houses differ from the rush processes governing sororities and fraternities, according to coed fraternity representatives.
Tabard has a nontraditional, non-exclusive bid system, which leads to a more diverse pledge class, Valleau said.
"Basically anyone who wants to join can," Valleau said. "We get the majority of our pledge class near the beginning of the term."
Phi Tau prospective new members must sign the fraternity's rush book at any time during a term to be considered for bids. After this time, current members decide whether or not to extend a bid to the prospective new member, according to Lai.
"If we do decide to give someone a bid, then they have the option of sinking it," Lai said. "Often people decide to sink in some sort of creative manner, but that's not required. Sinking just means returning [the bid] to the house in some form."
Bids extended by Phi Tau remain valid until graduation, Lai said.
Alpha Theta's rush process does not include "rolling rush" and "rolling sink" unlike the other two houses, Winsor said. Prospective new members must attend one of two evening recruitment events at Alpha Theta and sign a rush book. After members deliberate, students may be offered bids to join the house.
"It's a little bit more formal than the co-ed houses," Winsor said.
Tabard held one formal rush event, called Meet the Tabards, at the beginning of the term, Valleau said. Approximately 35 non-members attended the "basic meet and greet" event, Valleau said.
"We had food, shisha, members and non-members, [and] a lot of historical house artifacts and texts and stuff like that," he said.
Phi Tau held formal rush events on Sept. 29 and Sept. 30, Lai said.
"It's just a time you can meet the brothers and express your interest in joining," Lai said.
