Fewer Hopkins students chose to enroll in Greek organizations this year, showing a marked decrease in interest in Greek organizations.
The Hopkins Greek community has welcomed 276 new members this semester, a 6.5-percent decrease from last year.
This statistic does not include Lambda Phi Epsilon, which is still recruiting, and the new fraternity Delta Upsilon, which introduced 23 new members.
Formal recruitment, also called rush, takes place over the course of several days at the beginning of each spring semester, generally centering around social gatherings. There potential new members meet the brothers, sisters and other potential pledges, to determine which organization will be their best fit.
Students may or may not be offered a bid by their favorite organization.
"I think one more fraternity was going to offer me a bid, but I wasn't planning on joining another one besides Beta Theta Pi," freshman Jose De La Guerra said.
The recruitment process takes place over a period of six to 10 weeks, where new members are exposed to a particular "education program" of their chapter to learn the history, agenda, values and rules as well as getting acquainted with and developing deeper bonds with their fellow pledges.
This year's spring rush, which lasted from Jan. 25 to Feb. 1, assembled another diverse group of students from the Hopkins campus, from freshmen to upperclassmen. Girls typically attend four parties per night, one offered by each sorority.
"The hardest part is maintaining a high level of energy and enthusiasm for five hours! You want to be as charming with the first group as you are with the last, but by the end of the night you are so drained," freshman Allie Hernandez said. "I joined a sorority to get the chance to meet people I wouldn't normally see. I wanted to get to know people outside the AMRs, Engineering, and Crew."
However, the week's pledge activities did not all reflect the widely held stereotype of endless partying.
"All the little lunches and activities during the week are fun and help to break up the monotony of work," Allie Hernandez said.
As events progressed, rushers and events toned down as potential new members were given the opportunity to interact more in depth with sisters and brothers through conversations. The impressions that potential pledges left at each event throughout rush week crucially influenced the final bid offers at the end of the formal recruitment period.
Coordinator of Greek Life Robert Turning said, "There are quotas for all the fraternities and sororities, but at the end it is really up to them of the number of bids they want to give out. The numbers could vary depends on the size of the chapter and the work they have done the previous year."
Delta Upsilon is a new fraternity, with 23 new members. Sigma Alpha Mu has been less active, with a growth of two new members in 2006. This spring, they did not participate in formal recruitment.
The total number of new pledges for fraternities is not completely known right now; Greek Life is still in the process of receiving the final numbers from some fraternities, such as Lambda Phi Epsilon, which has yet to report its number of new pledges.
The Halloween controversy last fall did not appear to have affected Sigma Chi's turnout numbers.
Last year, Sigma Chi was ranked No. 1 by the Hopkins Inter-Fraternity Council with eight new members and a cumulative GPA of 3.27, sharing both its ranking and GPA with Alpha Epsilon Pi. This spring's pledge class of six isn't significantly different from last year's of eight.
With a multitude of planned activities, pledges had the opportunity to attend a variety of rush events. Beta Theta Pi brother Maxwell Taylor said, "This year, we had Poker Night; Restaurant Night [when] we went down to Rocky Run; and Pinball Night [when] we all drove down an hour to play pinball .... Events are organized and funded by each chapter, mainly [from] the pockets of older brothers."
For many potential pledges, which group friends are a in is a chief factor in determining their choice of organization. "I joined with a couple of my friends ... and [they] ultimately influenced my decision," De La Guerra explained.
Around 130 men and 129 women had made their way to the final round of rush events and received bids from different sororities. Turning emphasized, "Although you see fluctuation of numbers among sororities and fraternities, these numbers could be changed in the semester."
Cultural Greek organizations such as historically Asian and black sororities and fraternities follow their own schedules of rush and membership recruitment. They incorporate with their respective national chapters and belong to neither the Inter-Fraternity Council nor the Pan-Hellenic Council.
The growth of members of sororities and fraternities is steady this year; for those chapters that did not reach quota were eligible for "continuous open bidding" (COB), which enables the chapters to pick up unaffiliated sophomores after rush.
"I am friends with many Kappa sisters and have gone to a lot of events last year. COB is just convenient," sophomore Lauren Yum, a new sister of sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma, said.
This year, Greek policies have remained the same. One of the most important is that pledges cannot be on academic probation -- in other words, students need GPA higher than a 2.0.
However, these requirements vary among chapters. Although any student may rush, fulfilling the requirements of their chosen sororities and fraternities are vital to ensure a possible bid offer or position in the group.
"All the fraternities and sororities that have participated in the Formal Recruitment have been incredibly active in campus involvement and leadership. Generally speaking, they cater different types of people."
"The prospective members need to find themselves comfortable in wherever they choose to be; it's a family and a lifestyle," Turning said.
