Despite ban, rush numbers similar to those of last year

The freshman rush ban, which will be implemented beginning next fall, appears to have had no effect on this year’s sorority rush, with the three Panhellenic sororities at Princeton offering a very similar number of bids as they did last year.

“As far as numbers and general interest are concerned, the announcement of next year’s rush ban seemed to have no effect this year whatsoever,” Kappa Alpha Theta President Kara Dreher ’12 said in an email.

Instead of rushing an individual organization, as is the case with fraternities, freshmen and sophomores interested in joining a sorority participate in rush events for all three. At first, students attend events with Theta, Kappa Kappa Gamma and Pi Beta Phi. On the third evening, students are invited back to anywhere between zero and three events.

After attending each event to which they are invited, students rank the sororities in order of preference, while the sororities decide whom they want to invite back for the last night of rush. Students can attend up to two events on the final night before re-ranking their choices. They are then matched with one organization from which they later may receive their bid.

According to Dreher, 206 students attended the first night of rush, comparable to the 210 who came out last year. Of these, 151 were offered bids, compared to 153 last fall. These numbers suggest that the new policy to forbid freshmen from rushing beginning in the fall of 2012 has not dissuaded freshmen and sophomores from rushing this year.

“The general attitude toward rush this year was incredibly positive, and from my conversations with the rushees, all of the girls were very relieved and happy that they had the opportunity to go through the process this year,” Dreher said.

Dreher said that Theta offered bids to 52 students. Sorority members who wished to remain anonymous confirmed that Pi Phi offered 50 and Kappa offered 49. All these numbers were very close to the number of bids the organizations gave out last fall.

Last year, the total number of students who came out for the first day of rush jumped up 28 percent from 2009. This increase occurred despite the University’s continued policy of not officially recognizing the Greek organizations that exist on campus. Unlike many other schools, Princeton’s four sororities and 10 fraternities do not have official houses and are not regulated by the administration.

The numbers of the past two years have been higher than those of years past despite the letter that President Shirley Tilghman has began to send to freshmen and their families the summer before they matriculate at Princeton advising them against joining fraternities and sororities.

In spring 2010, the semester before rush numbers spiked, The Daily Princetonian ran a five-part series detailing certain aspects of Greek life. The articles focused on hazing, the demographic disparity between Greek organizations and the rest of the student body, the relationship between these organizations and the administration, the secret society St. Anthony Hall and the possibility of recognition or prohibition.

The last formal contact University officials had with Greek organizations occurred in 2004, when the administration tried to convince leaders of fraternities and sororities to move their rush to the spring of freshman year. The leaders refused, and the two groups have not formally spoken since, though Greek leaders attempted to initiate a dialogue last spring in response to the proposed freshman rush ban by starting the Princeton Greek Council.