Updated May 7, 2021 at 12:50 p.m.
Updated May 21, 2021 at 1:30 p.m.
During the College’s second term of virtual rush, new members accepted 30 bids from fraternities and gender-inclusive houses. These numbers are “pretty on par” with past years’ second term of rush, according to Office of Greek Life program coordinator Jessica Barloga.
New members accepted one bid at Alpha Chi Alpha fraternity, one at Gamma Delta Chi fraternity, 12 at Kappa Kappa Kappa fraternity and 13 at Zeta Psi fraternity. Among gender-inclusive greek houses, two bids were accepted at Alpha Theta and one has been accepted so far at Phi Tau, although rush for Phi Tau and Tabard will continue through the end of the term, according to Barloga. No sororities have extended bids following the Inter-Sorority Council’s decision to not hold rush in the spring. According to Barloga, National Pan-Hellenic Council Greek houses — The Theta Zeta Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., The Xi Lambda Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and The Pi Theta Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. — share new member information with the Office of Greek Life, but refrain from publicizing it until after their rush processes have concluded.
Interfraternity Council president Danny Gold ’22 said that for fraternities, “nothing’s changed” between winter and spring rush. Held on April 16, shake out still involved potential new members selecting their top choice out of all participating fraternities on a Google form followed by houses deliberating and offering bids, Gold explained. The primary differences between winter and spring rush were that spring rush involved one rather than two nights of shake out, and fraternities were not required to hold rush, he added.
“[Spring rush] was only for the houses that want to take additional new members for the spring,” Gold said. “Many houses already had their classes filled.”
According to Tri-Kap president Max Pumilia ’22, the house’s spring shake out bore similarities to its process in the winter. Pumilia said that Tri-Kap emphasized activities that were “conducive to a Zoom environment,” like “personal conversations.”
GDX president Griff Lehman ’22 said that GDX “didn’t really have spring rush.” The one bid GDX extended was to a specific member of the Class of 2022 that many GDX members knew from their participation on the football team, Lehman explained.
Lehman said he coordinated GDX’s spring process with Gold and Barloga shortly before the scheduled date for shake out. Gold added that Alpha Chi’s process to take on one new member this term resembled GDX’s.
Alpha Chi’s president did not respond to a request for comment.
Gold said that the IFC did not deem it necessary to include GDX or Alpha Chi on the shake out Google form since those houses only intended to take one member.
Gender-inclusive Greek houses’ rush processes vary depending on the house. According to Alpha Theta president Mara Kotz, Alpha Theta held rush on April 21, and those extended bids had to “sink” their bids by May 1. Phi Tau and Tabard, on the other hand, accept new members on a “rolling basis” rather than through a formal registration process, according to Barloga.
One of Tabard’s new member educators Mikala Uter ’23 said that this serves to make rush more “accessible” due to differences in students’ D-Plans. Tabard’s spring rush process, which involves mostly optional rush events like “Meet the Tabards,” game nights and trivia, will be complete by the end of the term.
“I would say about 20 [students are in the process of rushing] and I think the amount of people who will follow through with the process and become a part of the Greek house… will be around or at least 10,” Uter said.
Kotz wrote in an email statement that Alpha Theta does not hold a term-long process because the house has “found it beneficial to our new members to induct them all at the same time and spend the rest of the term doing new member education events with them.”
Uter said that Tabard “made the most of [virtual rush].” While in the past, Tabard has mostly recruited people that current members already knew, Uter explained that the pandemic motivated the house to open up its rush process to people outside the members’ social circles.
“It was a little bit more difficult to get in contact with the people that we would off the top of our heads invite to rush with us,” she said. “By opening it up more to the Dartmouth population we, … had the opportunity to meet more people, which is definitely always a good thing, always a fun thing.”
While Epsilon Kappa Theta sorority typically participates in continuous open bidding in the spring, EKT president Laurel Semprebon ’22 wrote in a statement that as the house only has one recruitment chair this term, they are not participating in COB and are instead “focusing on pre-recruitment events.” Kappa Delta sorority is also eligible to participate in COB this term but has not extended any bids as of May 5, according to Barloga.
Delta Sigma Theta’s president declined to comment. The presidents of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Alpha Phi Alpha, Kappa Delta, Phi Tau and Zete did not respond to request for comment. The Gender-Inclusive Greek Council also did not respond to a request for comment.
This article has been updated to include information about Alpha Theta's rush process.
Correction appended (May 21, 2021): A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that National Pan-Hellenic Council Greek houses do not share information with the Office of Greek Life. NPHC houses do share information with the Office of Greek Life but do not publicize that information until after the rush process has fully concluded. The article has been updated.
