More frats focus on recruiting upperclassmen

For Karan Shah, fall rush is his big second chance.

The Engineering sophomore wanted to join the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity last spring, but couldn't attend a majority of the rush events, eliminating his chances of getting a bid.

Yet Shah continued to hang out at the house, where several of his friends are brothers.

"I'm actually here more than I'm in my room," he said at a rush event at the house on Monday.

And now Shah may also become a brother in the frat.

At Penn, fraternities and sororities generally hold formal recruitment in January. That is the first time freshmen are permitted to rush Greek organizations.

But some frats and sororities also opt to hold informal rushes in the fall semester exclusively for sophomores and juniors, and this year fall rush seems to be more popular among chapters than in the past.

"It seems that there's a lot more talk and a lot of chapters participating," said Max Dubin, president of the InterFraternity Council.

The Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs does not keep exact records of how many upperclassmen join Greek organizations during informal rush, but OFSA director Scott Reikofski said more and more chapters have participated in fall rush over the past 10 years.

This year, at least two fraternities and three sororities are holding fall rush events. The number of pledges they accept will vary from chapter to chapter.

College junior and SAM president Josh Rosenbaum said his fraternity is looking to take eight to 10 men this semester. That's compared to three pledges who came from fall rush last year and seven who joined in the fall before that. Rosenbaum said about 12 rushees attended their first event.

Chapters participate in fall rush voluntarily, for a multitude of reasons.

Rosenbaum said SAM, which returned to campus three years ago, is trying to rebuild its membership, but isn't pushing for a large pledge class.

"We're a smaller frat, but we're not looking to be a huge frat," he said.

The sororities holding fall rush events, however, are not in need of members, but rather want to give transfer students and upperclassmen who didn't join as freshmen the opportunity to check out their groups.

"It has nothing to do with strength of the chapter or rushing ability," said Catie Vuksich, president of the Panhellenic Council, which represents many of Penn's sororities.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.