The revamped sorority rush process designed last year with a double goal of offering all rushees a bid and strengthening houses had only partial success when the formal process came to a close Tuesday night.
"The main goals we had in mind were to give every woman who wanted to be a part of the system a chance to be and to make sure each house is as strong as possible," Panhellenic Council President Melissa Trumbull '95 said in an April 14 interview with The Dartmouth. Each house voted on the series of changes last winter and that term's rush marked the first time Panhell guaranteed a place in a house for every woman who wanted to join the system.
This term, the first goal was achieved. Every woman who rushed and ranked all six sororities on her preference card received a bid from one of the houses.
But the second goal was relatively less successful. This year's process ended with a large discrepancy between the size of the houses' pledge classes, five of which at least filled their quota of 38 sophomore women and one with 12.
Emmie Jones '95, president of Delta Delta Delta sorority, confirmed that Tri-Delt received 38 sophomores and three upperclass or exchange students. Delta Gamma Sorority President Corey Fleming '95 said 15 women accepted bids at DG, three of whom are non-sophomores. Epsilon Kappa Theta Sorority President Cheryl Flick '95 said her house took in 39 sophomores, one of whom had been extended an open bid, and one '96.
Kappa Kappa Gamma President Julie Bowen '95 said her house gained 41 new members total. Sigma Delta Sorority President Adriana McGrath '95 said her house gained 38 sophomore women and two '97s. George Gemmill '96, president of Kappa Delta Epsilon sorority, could not be reached for comment, but a '95 sorority member, who asked to remain anonymous, said the house filled its quota of 38.
Fleming said, "Quota was set at the wrong time during the process."
This year Panhell set the quotas -- the maximum number of women to whom each house could extend bids -- after the second, rather than the third, round of rush, Assistant Dean of Residential Life Deb Reinders said.
"The quota ... was established with 20 [people] over how many pref. cards we had," Reinders said.
Busch said nearly 300 women attended the first round of rush. A quota of 38 women per house was set based on the number of women who remained after second round, meaning approximately 228 women were still in the process at that point.
Reinders said about 20 people dropped out after second round.
Since then houses have had the chance to reach unfilled quotas by extending open bids, which can be given to any non-first-year woman, whether she rushed or not.
Fleming said DG will continue to offer open bids.
Busch said one of the hurdles Panhell continues to face is that the rushees look at the process in a different light than do sorority members.
"I look at it as the Panhellenic community; rushees look at it as individual houses," Busch said.
Though no one interviewed would release further statistics, sources close to the rush process said those in charge -- members of Panhell -- could have avoided the current situation had the Council not used last year's formula to figure out how many invites each house could extend during the first and second rounds.
"It's a new dynamic because we had KDE" in addition to having a new rush process, Jones said. "The numbers just didn't reflect what the system was like."
Jones said this year six houses are drawing from numbers created for a five house system. Last year KDE did not participate in rush.
This year rushees were guaranteed at least three invites to second round but no rushee could accept more than four. They were also guaranteed at least two invites to preference night but could not accept more than three.
Since houses invited back a greater number of women this year, rushees were given more options of which houses to visit in subsequent rounds.
As a result, it is possible that particular houses were eliminated with greater frequency than others.
Because every woman was guaranteed a place in one of the houses if she listed all six on her preference card, some rushees were given bids to houses where they were not invited to second or third round.
"A lot of the time, people aren't invited back not because they aren't wanted, but because the numbers dictate it," Busch said.
Busch said, "The whole goal of rush is not to make the sororities bigger but to make the rushees happy."
Reinders said, "This system went the extra mile to accommodate the rushees."
