Disappointed with rush? The numbers say you are not alone.
The spring rush process, lasting almost all of January, has now concluded, with Duke’s 13 fraternities, 10 sororities and 15 SLGs accepting new members.
“The amount of people participating in rush is almost the exact same as last year,” said senior Harrison Labban, president of the Interfraternity Council, about fraternity rush. “The total number of accepted bids have also remained consistent.”
According to Labban, approximately 360 students rushed fraternities and 245 students accepted bids. Labban pointed out that since 2019, two fraternities lost recognition—Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Delta Sigma Phi—reducing the number of IFC chapters on Duke’s campus from 15 to 13.
The IFC declined to release data on individual chapters.
Junior Maya Rinehart, Panhellenic vice president of recruitment and membership, oversees formal sorority recruitment on campus.
“Seventy-four percent of the women who initially signed up for formal recruitment decided to join one of our 10 chapters,” Rinehart wrote in an email to The Chronicle. “We had 281 women join a chapter formally.”
Rinehart did not comment about Panhellenic’s previous years’ recruitment trends.
A comparison between class surveys conducted by The Chronicle between the class of 2022 and 2023 suggest that the interest in Selective Living Groups is increasing. The proportion of survey participants who expressed interest in SLGs increased from 85% to 91.7%.
The Chronicle reached out to SLGs for their 2020 rush statistics.
According to sophomore recruitment chair Kate Leonard, Brownstone accepted 29 out of 343 applicants. Illyria, an all-female SLG, offered bids to 37 rushees out the 140 who rushed, according to president Madison Catrett, a junior. Out of the 37 new Illyria members, 27 are first-years and 10 are sophomores.
LangDorm, an SLG aimed at students with various cultural and linguistic backgrounds, had 96 students rush with 51 submitting final applications by the end of the three-week rush process, according to junior Sweta Kafle, LangDorm vice president. Out of that pool, 31 new members joined LangDorm, out of which 23 were first-years, five were sophomores and three were juniors.
Sophomore rush chair Gloria Kim stated that Fusion, an Asian cultural interest SLG, does not cut rushees between rounds during rush. Halfway through rush, there were 62 rushees, and 30 were accepted. Among the 30 accepted are 26 first-years, three sophomores and one junior transfer. 17 of the 30 new members are in-section, all of whom are first-years.
For entrepreneurship SLG The Cube, 50 rushees continued the process through the final week of rushing, out of which 18 were accepted, according to a message from the group’s Facebook page. Fifteen of the 18 new members are first-year students.
Nexus, an SLG that promotes inclusiveness of all sexualities and genders, has had a 100% acceptance rate the past few years for all who submit an application, according to a message from the group’s Facebook page. Nexus declined to disclose the number of new members.
SLGs Ubuntu and Round Table declined to comment. Wayne Manor, Cooper, Mundi, Mirecourt, Maxwell and JAM! did not respond in time for publication.
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