As much a spring semester ritual as Myrtle Beach, freshmen and sophomores once again survived this year's choice about which fraternity or sorority to join. The final numbers reveal that fraternities are growing in size, while sororities are staying put.
This year, Interfraternity Council-recognized fraternities enjoyed an increase from last year in the number of accepted bids; the number of women who accepted bids into Panhellenic Council-recognized sororities remained about the same. IFC extended 377 bids this year, an increase of 7 percent from the 353 bids extended last year. Ninety-three percent of rushees receiving bids accepted membership, an increase of 17 percent from last year.
IFC president and Trinity junior Eric Weisman, a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, attributed the increased number of acceptances to individual fraternity leadership.
"It's been a few years since rush has been moved to the spring, and I think everyone has adapted to those changes," Weisman said. "The leadership in the fraternities has done a good job getting the brothers active in rush."
The rush process was adjusted slightly this year, as fraternities were required this year to keep rush events on campus during the first three weekends of the four-week process. The move was designed to enable rushees to attend more than one rush event in an evening.
"A majority of fraternity life is on campus," said Trinity sophomore Edward Dixon, IFC vice president of rushing and pledging and a member of the Kappa Alpha order. "Therefore, [having rush events the] first three weekends on campus allows freshmen to see what day-to-day fraternity life is all about."
To motivate fraternities to extend more bids, IFC's executive council decided last week not to release the total number of bids given out by each fraternity.
"We don't want to have any disincentive for a fraternity to give a bid, and we didn't see any benefits," Weisman said. "We're leaving the option to release that information up to the individual fraternity."
This year's fraternity rush is the first to occur under IFC's new policy banning alcohol distribution.
"The alcohol policy has not effected rush at all," Dixon said. "Guys don't rush fraternities for beer, they rush for the common bonds and lifetime friendships that are formed over their Duke career."
Panhel's rush results this year were similar to those of previous years. Seventy-four percent of the 462 women who registered for rush received bids, as compared to 76 percent last year. Seventy-eight women withdrew during rush and 19 women who completed the process did not receive bids. Of those not receiving bids, most preferenced only one sorority.
Changes to sorority rush include an increase in the number of participating sororities from nine to 10.
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