Greek system sees high number of winter rushees

By Susan Luth

Daily News Reporter

Local fraternities and sororities are seeing record numbers this week as winter rush draws to a close.

LSA senior Justin Bright, executive vice president of the Interfraternity Council, said the number of potential rushees who attended the IFC's mass meeting last Thursday was higher than the number who attended the past two years combined.

"Lots of people wanted to get acclimated to the school first before they rushed," Bright said.

IFC President Marc Hustvedt, an LSA senior, said he expects 50 to 100 more rushees than the usual 400. He thinks that the number of potential rushees is rising because of the Greek Community's participation in various campus activities, such as the K-Grams Kids Fair, the Detroit Project and Dance Marathon.

"We've been working very hard as a Greek Community to bridge the connection across campus, engaging students who otherwise would not have gone Greek," Hustvedt said. "We've really seen positive results from this."

LSA junior Don Santon, IFC vice president of recruitment, agreed the numbers are partially due to people wanting to first settle into the campus environment.

He felt that the winter rush has become a "friends rush," because in winter rush students who were accepted into fraternities and sororities during fall rush tend to recruit their friends into the chapters to which they were accepted.

"We'd like to see more rushees check all the fraternities out instead of just the ones they've heard of from their friends," Santon said.

Although IFC's rush will end tomorrow, Santon stressed that it is not too late for those interested to join.

"Lots of chapters recruit year round," he said. "If people are interested they can stop by the chapter house or call the Office of Greek Life."

Out of all chapters who are sponsoring a formal rush, 95 percent are fraternities. The Panhellenic Association itself is not holding a formal rush period, but three sororities - Pi Beta Phi, Alpha Gamma Delta and Gamma Phi Beta - will be holding an extra rushing period until the end of this month.

The sororities are trying to make up for lost numbers and low recruitment counts from last fall.

"So far we've had good numbers," said Pi Beta Phi President Dana Holcman, an LSA senior. "We had 20 people come through so far, which we're happy with. We are very confident and very excited."

Santon said about 200 people usually attend the mass meeting, where fraternities sponsor tables to promote themselves among rushees. This year, 27 of the 29 fraternities were present. If numbers follow the trend from the past few years, Santon expects just under 450 people to rush.

"It's hard to tell right now because its still early," he said. "We feel the numbers are up this year, though, because of the large turnout at the mass meeting."