Three weeks of dudes, drinks and date functions came to an end Friday, as 213 recruits accepted bid offers from the campus' 14 Interfraternity Council-affiliated fraternities.
This year's total represents a decrease from last year's class of 225. Fraternities distributed 255 regular bids Monday, plus about 25 "snap" bids, given to participants who did not receive a bid through the regular recruitment process, said senior Trent McNatt, IFC's vice president for recruitment and pledging.
Pi Kappa Phi fraternity had the most pledges at 31, and Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity had the fewest at four. "Snap" bids, which were given out after Monday, have not yet been accounted for in the final pledge numbers, McNatt said.
Although this year's registration declined by about 25 men, resulting in a rush pool of approximately 470 academically eligible students, the number of bids extended by IFC chapters increased. IFC President Lee Hathaway, a senior, attributed the higher yield to better informational outreach to freshmen.
IFC officers said this year's recruitment season culminated smoothly and without a hitch.
"The process has been incredible this year," Hathaway said. "From my understanding, there were not any major infractions. All in all, it was pretty smooth."
Few changes were made to the rush process from last year, McNatt said. Like last year, scheduling procedure for rush events was more strictly enforced than in the past.
"Fraternities had a set night to hold their semiformals this year," McNatt explained. "They had to hold it during the week, and, in addition to that, the chapter could not hold a date function other than their semiformal during the week."
He said the purpose of this change was to prevent time conflicts between different fraternities' date functions, which tend to be given more weight in the rush process.
Pi Kappa Phi fraternity Rush Chair Pat Rutter, a sophomore, said he noticed indecision among some freshmen this year, with several in his fraternity's pool choosing to defer bids rather than accept immediately.
Each year, recruits have the option of deferring their bids for several days if they need more time to decide which fraternity, if any, to pledge. Friday afternoon was the decision deadline this year. Although the majority of recruits accepted their bids upon receipt, Hathaway said, others took advantage of the deferral option.
"People who deferred were people who literally couldn't make up their mind between frats-whether to go with a group of friends who were rushing together or with us, a group of guys who they liked," Rutter said.
Freshman Matthew Clayton found himself conflicted when all of his friends began rushing Eta Prime, an off-campus fraternity unaffiliated with IFC and formerly known as Kappa Sigma.
"With all of your friends going one place, you feel the pressure to follow," he said. "Then during rush you realize it's important not to think of it as following rumors or the image the frat puts out, but the group of people you want to emulate and live with."
Clayton deferred before accepting his bid from Delta Tau Delta fraternity instead.
IFC might re-evaluate the length of time recruits can defer bids, so that fraternities know sooner who will constitute their incoming pledge class, Hathaway said. But he added that deferral can be crucial for freshmen who are on the fence about joining a fraternity.
"I know if we did say that everybody needs to decide [the first day], a lot of kids would have second thoughts and end up dropping [their bids]," he said.
This year, forthcoming changes to the fraternity landscape may have complicated students' pledging decisions. Upcoming colonizations by Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Sigma Pi as IFC-affiliated fraternities will present new options for students interested in going greek.
"We are seeing a lot of feedback from freshmen regarding kids who were saying they didn't get a bid from anywhere they were interested and are looking to join SAE," McNatt said. "There is a lot of good buzz around that."
The rush process for SAE will begin Feb. 6 with a meet-and-greet at the Washington Duke Inn. Sigma Pi will colonize at Duke in Spring 2010.
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