With a pledge class of none, fraternity learns rush's cycles

Lambda Chi Alpha has always been one of the smaller fraternities on campus, and with this year's nonexistent pledge class, it's going to be even smaller. The fraternity has no pledges, despite officially extending four bids this year, and unofficially offering five others. "This has definitely been a trying time," Lambda Chi President Evan Randall said. The fraternity has no plans to close, however. "I'm not concerned about closing because I know we won't," he said. "It's not going to die." Randall said that this year's numbers definitely came as a surprise -- a surprise that dealt an especially strong blow following last year's "awesome rush class" of 13 men. Now, Lambda Chi membership is at 25, four of which are seniors. The fraternity's brothers aren't the only ones baffled by this year's lack of a turnout. Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs Director Scott Reikofski remains stumped as well. "I'm not quite sure what's going on," he said. Reikofski noted that the Lambda Chi brothers are "good guys" and that the fraternity has a strong national reputation. He added, however, that having a small recruitment year is not as uncommon for fraternities as one might think. "It kind of goes in cycles," Reikofski said. "[Some] chapters took 25 this year when a few years ago they were scrambling for five." Without new members, Lambda Chi has additional woes -- finding enough people to fill their 3829 Walnut Street house. Currently, the fraternity is two brothers short of filling its house. Seven current brothers decided to move out next year, assuming new members would fill their spots in the house. Now, the chapter may be forced to rent rooms to boarders. Despite initial shock, Randall is confident the group has isolated the cause of the calamity. "We didn't have good organization," he said. "I think it just stems from responsibility, accountability and organization." "It stems much deeper than this little rush thing," he said. Back in January, when only one man attended the fraternity's second closed rush event, the brothers knew they had a problem. Lambda Chi brothers responsible for rush were not calling back prospective pledges, Randall said. As a result, those prospects were picked up by other fraternities. Randall said that many went to Beta Theta Pi, which is currently trying to revitalize itself at Penn. "You have to show interest in people for them to show interest in you," he said. Reikofski said that losing pledges to Beta was to be expected, considering the fraternity brought professional Beta staff to campus this year for recruiting. And another factor tilted the rush scales away from Lambda Chi -- money. Due to Lambda Chi's small size -- and the fact that it has the cheapest dues on campus -- Randall said it couldn't compete with the larger, wealthier fraternities. "They have all the money to do really cool shit," he said. "It's hard for us to show that in the long run, you're really going to want that brotherhood." But Reikofski asserts that's exactly what the fraternity must do. "They really need to get out there and hustle a little bit more," he said. "And I think that's what Lambda Chi is finding out the hard way." A few weeks ago, anxious brothers-to-be waited to sign bid cards and begin four years of fraternity life, while packed in the basement of Meyerson Hall. And while four bid cards awaited the signatures of potential Lambda Chi brothers, the fraternity left with cards unsigned. Later, one freshman agreed to sign up. But when the fraternity realized it only had a single pledge, Randall and the pledge mutually ended the deal. Both agreed that being the sole pledge "would just absolutely suck," Randall said. The fraternity will continue recruitment efforts until the end of the year, when it hopes to have at least four new members, Randall said. And Randall said that there are many benefits to joining Lambda Chi Alpha. "I think we're closer than most fraternities," he said. "I'm sure they'd love it," he said. "Everyone here does." Additionally, the national Lambda Chi organization prides itself as the first fraternity to abolish pledgeship -- and thus hazing -- back in the 1970s. Lambda Chi is not the only fraternity with low recruitment, but some fraternities maintain that low numbers are deliberate. Sigma Nu's pledge class of five suits the fraternity, according to chapter president Joel Patton. "We like the way things are," the Engineering junior said. That's "the size pledge classes have been for the last couple years and we're comfortable with it." Patton added that Sigma Nu's focus is on quality over quantity. "We decided we'd take the guys we like and not care about numbers," he said. And while Lambda Chi's numbers were not intentional, the fraternity says it will learn from its mistakes. "We know what we did wrong this year," Randall said. "We'll be able to recover. When you're in a fraternity, you have to recruit, that's the thing you have to do."

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