Rush events over the past week saw an increase in participation among female students interested in joining sororities on campus, despite last year's suspension of Alpha Phi for hazing and alcohol policy violations.
Sorority recruitment registration ended with 114 women signed up on an online registration system, according to Director of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs Patrick Romero-Aldaz. Of those originally registered, 78 women filled out preference cards on Friday to indicate which chapter they preferred to join.
The total number was not a "huge jump" from what sororities have seen in the past, but it was significantly more than the 80 women who originally registered last year, according to Panhellenic Council President Jessica Snow.
Though Tufts has three sorority chapters, only Alpha Omicron Pi and Chi Omega participated in the formal recruitment process. The third, Alpha Phi, was prevented from participating in the process due to stipulations in a decision related to judicial action against the group last semester.
The recruitment process for Alpha Omicron Pi and Chi Omega began last Sunday and ended Saturday, when the new-member recruits were notified of the bids they received. All women got a bid, although each woman only received a bid to one of the two sororities.
Chi Omega handed out 38 bids, according to sophomore Alisa Brennan, the group's president. AOPi declined to comment on the number of bids it gave out.
Snow, a senior, said that withdrawals from women who register before rush week but later drop out are expected.
Still, this year's recruitment showed a considerable surge in interest. "It went fantastic. At the end of recruitment, after all the withdrawals, there were actually more people at the end of this year than at the beginning of last year," Snow said. "It definitely shows a trend of growth."
Snow attributed the rise in interest to the new recruitment procedure that Tufts' sororities have adopted called partially structured recruitment (PSR).
PSR requires a smaller time commitment than the formal recruitment procedure that the sororities have used in the past. The process calls for new-member recruits to attend two out of the three events hosted by each of the sorority chapters during rush week.
"It's a lot more flexible, which we notice Tufts students really like," Snow said. "Tufts doesn't have a stereotypical sorority community."
The jump in registration was also due to an increased effort at marketing Greek Life on campus, Snow added. "We've been working really hard to improve our image," she said.
Sophomore Jason Clain, vice president of marketing and public relations for the Inter-Greek Council (IGC), said that the IGC's Greek formal and a Greek-sponsored block party in October were well-attended and helped to increase interest around campus.
Fraternities have a slightly elongated recruitment process, a result of the greater number of fraternity chapters on campus. Fraternity rush ends on Wednesday.
Student interest looked "very high" this year for the fraternity system, said Clain, although he added that a lot of men take part in the rush process before registering simply by virtue of whom they know in fraternities. The fraternity recruitment process, unlike that for sororities, has not changed.
Generally, similar numbers of men and women rush, according to Romero-Aldaz.
Meanwhile, Alpha Phi and the sorority system have been coping with the effects of the group's suspension. The sorority was placed on social probation due to violations of hazing and alcohol-related policies.
The Fraternity and Sorority Life Judiciary, made up of students, originally sentenced the sorority to forego recruitment last year and wait until this year to initiate members it recruited last year. But without those members, Snow said, Alpha Phi would have lost its house.
In response, the judiciary offered the group another sentence in which new members were allowed to join last year if Alpha Phi agreed to abstain from recruiting this semester. The sorority accepted that change.
Snow was pleased that last year's incident did not turn away potential new members to sororities. "I did think it would be a huge deterrent," she said. "I'm really happy to be wrong."
Though Alpha Phi did not formally recruit during last week's rush, the sorority was still involved in the process.
Alpha Phi President Elizabeth Tarr, a junior, said that the Panhellenic Council has worked to set the record straight on the sorority's probation and has made an effort to show that it is still a "valid, viable house on campus."
"[The Panhellenic Council] and Alpha Phi have been working together to maintain a level playing field with all three houses," Tarr said. "They have kept our name alive."
This week, potential new members were made aware that they could withdraw from events and wait until next fall to rush Alpha Phi, at which point the sorority will be allowed to resume recruitment.
As part of its probation terms, Alpha Phi is bringing anti-hazing speaker Erle Morring to campus on Wednesday night. New members of fraternities and sororities are required to attend, and the event is open to the Tufts community.
This is the first time a presentation of this sort has been offered as part of the recruitment process, and is part of an initiative among the Greek community to raise awareness against hazing, according to Tarr.
