Winter Rush officially ended Tuesday night with 325 men readying to join fraternities and 475 women receiving their Greek fates in tiny white envelopes.
The number of students in this year’s pledge class tops the 418 women and 283 men offered bids last year. Both fraternities and sororities reached out to the student body to help increase recruitment, said Emily Schultz, Panhellenic Association vice president of membership.
“Numbers are up this year because we did a good job recruiting and publicizing our events,” Schultz said.
As nervous women filed into Louis Room and weepy, screaming sorority members skipped out, Speech freshman Allison Hord said the waiting process was an emotional experience.
“All the girls want to vomit because it’s like awaiting an acceptance letter,” Hord said. “After you go through this whole rush process you feel like you deserve your first choice. It’s anticlimactic because if you don’t get your first choice it’s like – oh.”
One group of friends exchanged hugs and screams after discovering they had all gotten into Kappa Kappa Gamma. An invitation to join Kappa Alpha Theta moved Speech freshman Courtney Dunn to tears.
“Breathing isn’t something I’ve done since Thursday, ” Dunn said. “This basically meant the world to me. My mom was a Theta and all my life I wanted to be a Theta.”
Panhel President-elect Francesca Rodriguez said Alpha Delta Pi’s recruitment efforts were boosted by hosting rush in a house. The sorority, which joined Panhel in 2000, held rush events in Scott Hall and the Willard Residential College basement last year.
“(Last year), it was hard for potential members coming through to understand why Alpha Delta Pi was not in a chapter house in a five-minute conversation,” said Rodriguez, a Speech junior who also serves as ADPi president.
Only 12 women did not receive bids this year, compared with 38 last year. Initially, several more women were mistakenly left out of houses, but Panhel adjusted the numbers and called women to notify them of the change, Schultz said.
Medill freshman Stephanie Rich said she “came to grips with not being in a sorority” before receiving a call around 3:30 p.m. asking her to pick up her bid.
Fraternity rush officially ended Friday night, but actual numbers are higher than preliminary reports by the Interfraternity Council.
Gabe Drucker, Interfraternity Council vice president of recruitment and membership, said strong numbers among the smaller fraternity houses and regular recruitment figures among larger houses point to a successful rush.
“The quality and success of this year’s rush rests solely on the shoulders of rush chairs and the men of every fraternity who worked hard toward the goals of brotherhood,” said Drucker, a Weinberg senior.
Recolonized Pi Kappa Alpha nearly doubled in size, from 23 to 45 members, despite not having a house to host rush events.
Pike President Lee Lockwood said the fraternity reached out to freshmen with a more proactive recruitment campaign that will continue next year with a new house.
“If we incorporate both the advantages of having a house and the message we used to attract potential members we’ll be that much stronger,” said Lockwood, a McCormick junior.
After pledging two members last year, Phi Kappa Psi benefited from “more equitable distribution among larger and smaller houses” to recruit 18 members, said Ryan Williams, Phi Psi rush chair.
Williams, a Weinberg junior, said Phi Psi members could attract more members because they were familiar with the rush process.
“There was just a different climate around the house this year,” he said.
Theta Chi had only 10 members going into rush week after recruiting six students last year. The organization garnered 11 new pledged this year despite a reduced rush budget. President Zach Hargrove said events like indoor whiffle ball helped the house double its membership.
“We had a bunch of low-budget events that were really fun,” said Hargrove, a Weinberg junior. “One thing we realized is you don’t have to have huge, exotic, big-priced events to get new members.”
