About 70 fewer Northwestern women are participating in Winter Rush this year — a decline that has caused Panhellenic Association leaders to focus on ensuring that everyone who rushes winds up pledging.

On the first night of sorority rush, Rho Chis — guides for sorority rushees during the recruitment process — each donned flickering antenna headbands and led groups of nine rushees to the sorority houses. They kept their groups entertained with songs, cheers and boom boxes playing Ricky Martin.

With recruitment participation down about 11 percent this year — from 600 to 531 — Rho Chis are working harder to ensure participants complete Winter Rush.

“This year we’re going for higher retention rates to keep women through rush in the Greek system,” said Christy Lyons, Panhel vice president of membership. “We’ve trained Rho Chis really well to talk to their women about all the things sororities have to offer them.”

The proportion of new students participating remained the same even though there was a drop in participants this year, Lyons said. She attributed the drop in participants to fewer women enrolling at NU in 2003 than in 2002.

This year’s freshman class, at 1,947 students, has 58 fewer students than the class of 2006. Gender breakdown was unavailable.

But Lyons said the reduced number of rushees might actually help Winter Rush run more smoothly.

“I think it’ll actually be a good thing, because last year, when there were 600, it was really hard to keep track of everybody,” said Lyons, a Weinberg senior. “I talked to all the chapters this year and I feel like they have a really positive attitude and a lot of dedication.”

Kat Wang, recruitment chairwoman of Chi Omega, agreed with Lyons that putting an emphasis on retention through rush would help make up for the fewer participants.

“Hopefully all these women won’t be dropping out of rush,” said Wang, a Communication junior. “Instead of having more people at the beginning of rush and then having them drop out, hopefully we can have more people stay for the whole thing.”

Participants said they appreciated the spirit of the Rho Chis, who belong to sororities but do not reveal their affiliation to the rushees.

“The Rho Chis really make an effort to make it fun for us,” said Jill Greenfield, a Communication freshman, as she danced to music coming from her Rho Chi’s boom box. “I’m going to dance just to warm up.”

Although the reasons for the drop in participation might not be clear, one transfer student said she thought about participating but did not because she did not like the rush format.

“When you’re rushing a frat, the system is entirely different, and it just seemed a little more fun than going to interview at six different sororities,” said Gowri Jayaram, a McCormick sophomore who transferred to NU this year. “I don’t think it’s something you need to do to meet people.”

Rho Chi Kat De Maria called the decision to complete Winter Rush a personal one.

“We hope that every woman who goes through recruitment finishes because we think it’s an enriching experience,” said De Maria, a Medill senior. “But we can’t force anyone. It has to be their choice.”

Rho Chi Yujin Yi said she hopes to pass on her enthusiasm about the Greek system to her group of rushees.

“Basically it’s just a lot of encouraging — encouraging all the girls to give everything a chance,” said Yi, a Weinberg senior. “Hopefully they will get through the cold and find a house that they like, just like me.”

Rho Chis socialized, sang and danced with their groups, trying to keep their energy up between the six 30-minute parties participants attend on the first two nights of rush.

One Rho Chi gave out conversation suggestions, whispering “Remember! Veggie Tales!” to her group as the door to the house opened. The Rho Chi added that the topic at the last house had been state capitals.

While there was fun to be had outside, the main event was the chapter parties.

“It was really cool, even though it’s kind of crazy” said Lamis Eli, a Weinberg freshman, after visiting her first house. “You go from room to room and girl to girl, and you forget what you told one and if you’re repeating yourself. It went by really fast.”