Of the more than 400 men who registered for the fraternity recruitment process, approximately 350 men accepted bids from the 15 Inter-Fraternity Council fraternities on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, according to IFC president Tim Brown '13. The fraternity rush process concluded after houses closed their doors on Sunday at 9 p.m. following two nights of formal recruitment, with a similar number of men rushing and offered bids this year as in years past.
At Alpha Chi Alpha fraternity, 26 men accepted bids; Alpha Delta fraternity, 32; Beta Alpha Omega fraternity, 35; Bones Gate fraternity, 21; Chi Gamma Epsilon fraternity, 15; Gamma Delta Chi fraternity, 23; Chi Heorot fraternity, 22; Kappa Kappa Kappa fraternity, 21; Phi Delta Alpha fraternity, 27; Psi Upsilon fraternity, 32; Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, 25; Sigma Nu fraternity, 12; Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, 23; Theta Delta Chi fraternity, 25; and Zeta Psi fraternity, 17, according to Brown and fraternity representatives.
Brown said he does not believe that last year's hazing controversy or the College's recent changes in its hazing policy affected recruitment numbers this year. The results do not indicate any significant shift from previous years, he said.
"The main thing is that if people expected the numbers to be wildly different because of the attention, that didn't happen," Brown said. "That probably attests to the fact that people believe in fraternities beyond what they read and that they believe in [the fraternities'] purpose to be something greater than the bad things they hear."
Beta had a greater number of "shake-outs," or men who indicate a binding preference for a particular house, than ever before and took in its largest pledge class since the fraternity returned to campus in fall 2008, according to Beta rush chair Ned Kingsley '14.
Beta saw 88 people rush the house this year, with 44 shake-outs on Saturday and 35 men accepting bids in total, according to Kingsley. Beta's new pledge class is composed of 33 members of the Class of 2015 and two members of the Class of 2014.
"We only accepted the guys who shook out because we had such a strong contingent," Kingsley said. "All of the guys we extended bids to accepted the bids we're really happy about that."
Kingsley said he does not think that the hazing controversy influenced the turnout for the house.
"I think we sort of pride ourselves on our reputation of recruiting good guys who are attracted to fraternities for the more positive aspects of fraternities," he said. "The fact that we had a bigger turnout this year than ever before reflects the strength of our house."
SAE also had its highest number of shake-outs in the past three years, with just under 100 people rushing the house in total, 33 men shaking out on Saturday and 22 accepting bids, according to SAE rush chair Alex Olesen '14.
Olesen said he was satisfied with both the rush process at his house and with the strength and cohesiveness of SAE's new pledge class.
The process is comparable at every house and the IFC maintains the same recruitment procedures at each fraternity.
On the first night of rush on Saturday, men visited houses and signed rush books, with shake-outs occurring in the last 10 minutes of the night.
Kingsley said that Beta's recruitment nights maintained a relaxed atmosphere.
"We have all of the brothers in the chapter room, and the prospective candidates cycle in throughout the night," Kingsley said. "We try to keep it pretty casual and make everyone feel comfortable."
Derek DeWitt '15, who received a bid at Phi Delt, said that the rush process was more straightforward than he originally expected it to be.
"There were a lot of guys at every house I visited," DeWitt said. "In fact, I was surprised by how many were at each house."
DeWitt said he thought that most of the men who wanted a bid this year received one.
"I think that when men are going into rush, they have a pretty good idea of where they want to end up," DeWitt said. "I don't think women have that opportunity, which can make rush a lot more stressful or difficult for them."
Cameron Hunter '15, who received a bid at Sig Ep, said he was lucky not to have to undergo "the excruciating process" that women go through during rush.
"Rush itself for me wasn't stressful at all I went to two different houses, where I knew a lot of people and just really talked to the people I knew," Hunter said. "Some I didn't know, but it wasn't bad at all."
DeWitt said that the recent controversy surrounding hazing at the College did not affect their decisions to rush.
Brown said that the fraternities have been proactive in making changes and in addressing and speaking openly to prospective members about hazing. The only major difference for rush this year was that in order to participate in the process, prospective members were required to attend orientation meetings discussing the rush process and expectations for new members.
