As any college student understands, the Greek scene is an important part of campus social life, whether you are a brother or sister pledged to a chapter or simply a visitor when the weekend rolls around. Life at Tufts, with 10 fraternities and three sororities on campus, is no exception. Greek life is hardly the center of most Jumbos' social lives, but it still plays a significant role, so it should be as accessible as possible to everyone on campus interested in pledging.
The recent spring rush yielded a record 185 participants for the sororities, and the upward trend seems to have no ceiling in sight. The sororities practice a guaranteed bid system, wherein every applicant that "fully participates" in the process is guaranteed a bid but is not guaranteed her first choice, according to Director of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs Su McGlone.
The Panhellenic Council may have been lucky that enough girls dropped out of the bidding process before it came to an end. Had more of the 185 participants seen it through to the end, it is the sororities would have been unable to accept them all and instead may have had to turn some away — which could eventually lead to a culture of exclusivity on this campus that Tufts' greek system has explicitly tried to avoid.
We credit the sororities for going to great lengths to live up to their commitment to guaranteed bidding: Alpha Phi, Chi Omega and Alpha Omicron Pi gave out 39, 35 and 44 bids, respectively. These are huge tallies, especially when compared to the campus' fraternities. With many more options, fraternities' bid yields are lower across the board. Theta Chi, Zeta Psi and Zeta Beta Tau gave out just 33, 25 and 16 bids, respectively. Though fraternity pledging remains as strong as ever, the myriad options help the frats to avoid "over-rushing."
Clearly, the sororities are already overextending, and the administration recently approved an increase in the maximum membership ceiling for sorority membership in order to allow the chapters to admit more pledges. But the change in policy only did so much — Chi Omega still had to sit out rush in the fall due to its large membership.
The issue is simply mismatched logistics: On a campus with a near 50-50 split of males and females, the number of fraternities is more than triple the number of sororities. When so many people want something that is in such short supply, the end result is people being left out. It's a sad situation that can be easily rectified: Acknowledge the immense demand and respond by increasing supply.
In other words, Tufts needs to add a fourth sorority. Doing so would allow each one to select pledges that have connected well with their specific chapter while still keeping up the number of acceptances overall. If a fourth chapter isn't added, the climbing rushing rates will become unsustainable, leading to exclusive groups similar to Harvard's much-maligned final clubs.
The ball is already rolling, with talks underway with the Panhellenic Council, a positive sign that the community is responding to the situation by taking steps to make sororities accessible to everyone. But talk only goes so far, and until Tufts has signed off on a fourth sorority, these issues will continue to plague Greek life on campus.
