Despite changes in procedure, this year's sorority rush went smoothly, according to Panhellenic Council officials. Last year, nine sororities participated in formal rush. This year, due to Alpha Phi's revitalization, only eight sororities were involved in the entire rush process. In addition, sorority rush was shortened this year from five rounds spread over 11 days to four rounds completed in a week.
Because of these changes, Panhel leaders worried about a potentially problematic rush. "We were nervous about it because we hadn't had a 'stable rush' in the past several years," explained Emily Snell, the vice president for membership recruitment at Duke Panhel. "We tend to base things on what happens in previous years, but there were less sororities in formal rush this year."
Because only eight sororities participated in formal rush this year, the pledge class quota set by Panhel rose from 40 last year to 47 pledges this year. A few sororities were allowed to exceed the quota limit by one or two pledges, while three sororities fell short of the quota.
"The sororities that missed quota did not do so because they didn't do a good job at rush, but because pledge classes were so huge and some sororities were more selective with rushees throughout the process," said Snell, a senior.
While 408 women registered for formal rush-with over 15 percent of them sophomores- approximately 10 percent dropped out over the course of the week. The most common reasons included disinterest and unexcused absences from rush rounds.
Of the women who did complete the entire process, only seven women did not receive a bid. In the majority of these cases the women had "intentionally single-preferenced" one sorority after the last round of rush.
This practice, commonly referred to as "suiciding," is heavily discouraged by Panhel because it significantly lowers the chances that women will receive a bid.
Panhel leaders were pleased with the relatively low number of no-bids.
"Most sororities in the Southeast region have about a five to 10 percent no-bid rate, and it used to be fairly high at Duke. So we're down where we should be," said Snell. "It is typical to have some no-bids. Ideally there would be none at all, but seven is a number that I can live with-and it is a number that I think the Duke community can live with."
Officials noted that the number of alleged rush infractions was up considerably from last year.
Part of the increase, Snell explained, had to do with a new policy of no contact with potential members for the duration of rush.
In the past, the policy stipulated that sorority members could have no purposeful seeking of contact, but because that rule was so loosely defined, it was revised this year to ban any e-mail, phone calls or conversation between rushees and sorority sisters.
"We did not want the potential new members to feel any sort of pressure," said Snell. "We can't stop them from talking to their friends, but we wanted to stop any pressure from current sorority members."
Alpha Epsilon Phi and Alpha Phi, the two sororities who did not participate in formal rush, will be continuing with their own informal rush procedures in the coming weeks.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.