As Rho Chis are beginning to contact their groups of rushees, the Panhellenic Council is preparing to start a revamped fall sorority rush, which will begin Thursday.
Panhell faces the largest rush class in three years, according to Panhell President Kelly Bodio '00. As of Monday night, 298 women had registered for this year's rush.
In August, the Panhellenic Council announced that the eight sororities on campus may not be able to offer bids to all women rushing this year due to the surge in interest.
Panhell Rush Chair Ashley Wendus '00 told The Dartmouth in August that there has never been an official Panhell policy to guarantee bids, but that during the past two years, all women who completed the rush process have been matched with a sorority.
"Rush is a process of mutual selection," Bodio said.
She said every year a certain number of students drop out of rush part way through the process and that she cannot judge now if any students will not be offered spaces in sororities.
Bodio said she does not think the large number of rushees this year is at all related to the Trustee Initiative.
"I think it shows the need for women's social space and that the students recognize that need."
She said these women are split into 36 Rho Chi groups, which are led by current sorority members who applied last Spring term.
These leaders disaffiliate from their respective houses for the duration of rush so that they can act as "very impartial" sources of information for the '02s in their groups, she said.
According to Bodio, the biggest change to the rush process this year is that round zero will now be an optional but "highly recommended" philanthropy round.
During Round Zero, rushees will go to each house making crafts like greeting cards, cookies and bookmarks, which will be donated to charity on Saturday.
"We're trying to break away from the same rush party atmosphere," Rho Chi Coordinator Christina Dam '00 said.
Although changes to the rush process are occurring at the same time as the Trustees are deciding the future of the College's social and residential life, both Bodio and Dam emphasized that the decision to change rush was unrelated to the Trustee Initiative.
Bodio said the sororities decided to incorporate the philanthropic round after the February meeting of the National Panhellenic Council where a community service-oriented aspect of rush was emphasized.
She added that the new Round Zero would help rushees meet sisters in sorority houses as well as the members of their Rho Chi groups, while introducing them to an important part of the sorority experience.
Bodio said the only other significant change to rush this fall will be that the decorations for one of the round's events will not be store-bought as they had been in previous years.
Rush runs from this Thursday night through Tuesday, October 5, which is bid acceptance night.
She said that despite interest expressed last spring in creating a ninth sorority to accommodate the exceptionally large rush class, that was an impossibility at this point because of a moratorium placed on new single-sex organizations by the senior administrator of the College.
