Fraternity recruitment sees pledge increase

Hopkins fraternities of the Inter-Fraternity Council have completed their recruitment for the spring semester.

According to Rob Turning, the Director of Student Activities and Acting Director of Greek Life, around 220 students registered for fraternity recruitment, a large increase over previous years, with the number going on to pledge seeing a similar increase.

"From what I've seen so far, these numbers would mark a healthy increase in the number of men joining fraternities," Turning wrote in an email to The News-Letter. Not all statistics were available as of press time because several chapters had yet to turn in pledge cards.

The recruitment process, which began in early February, saw events held by each fraternity that offered prospective pledges the opportunity to meet the brothers and learn more about each organization.

Prospective pledges were offered bids by the fraternities and then decided on whether to commit to the pledging phase through the rest of the semester.

Phi Delta Theta retained 19 pledges this year out of 21 bids offered, according to chapter president Amit Thakrar, which represented a large increase from their typical class size of four or six students in prior years.

"What was interesting for us was what made these kids tick, what they were interested in, what did they wanted to get out of the process," Thakrar said.

Phi Delta Theta's pledge class's first event involved a community service project.

"On the first Sunday after they crossed as pledges we did a community service event at Stony Run Park," Thakrar said, adding that they had partnered with Friends of Stony Run for that event. Thakrar believes that this sort of focus on community service is important for shaping the image of Greek Life as more than socializing.

"It changes the perception of Greek life students to the community at large," he said.

Sigma Phi Epsilon has 20 men in their new pledge class.

"I think I speak for everybody in the fraternity when I say we are all very excited to have these new members, and feel like they have a great deal of potential," Justin Sorkin, chapter president, wrote in an email to The News-Letter.

Retaining much of their rush schedule from last year, Sorkin noted that their rush events included several dinners at the fraternity's house and watching an NBA game.

"Our main goal with rush events was to encourage guys to come out and meet the brotherhood in a low key environment," he wrote.

Beta Theta Pi sought a smaller pledge class this year, bringing in 16 pledges compared to 22 last year and 18 the year prior. Michael Sondag, chapter president, explained that with a shorter rush week than most of the other fraternities, they had met their goals.

"We're pretty excited with our class. We had a couple of very large classes the last two years and we're happy to scale it back a notch, find our ideal size," he said.

Sondag also expressed contentment with the pledge class this year.

"We're pretty confident about everyone going into rush week and excited. Everyone we have fits what we are looking for in terms of character," he said. "We're excited that we got through it and we're moving forward now with the new guys that we got."

Other fraternities whose pledge class sizes are available include Alpha Epsilon Pi with 15, Pi Kappa Alpha with 18, Phi Kappa Psi with 26 and Sigma Chi welcoming 14 pledges.