Fall fraternity recruitment wraps up

For some upperclassmen men who participated in this year’s Interfraternity Council fall rush, the finish line is close in sight.

The nine IFC fraternities — Alpha Chi Rho, Kappa Alpha, Kappa Sigma, Lambda Chi Alpha, Phi Gamma Delta, Pi Kappa Alpha, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Sigma Pi and Theta Xi — that participated in this semester’s fall rush are wrapping up the recruitment process as the end of the semester approaches.

Scott Reikofski, director of the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, said this year’s fall rush bid numbers were slightly higher than last year’s. He said this increase reflects a national trend away from just traditional spring-semester rush.

“Chapters and their national organizations [are] moving toward a philosophy of rolling recruitment rather than a once-a-year rush,” Reikofski explained.

Fall rush is only open to upperclassmen. Many of those who choose to rush are either transfer students or have academic or athletic obligations that prevent them from running in the spring when rush traditionally takes place.

College sophomore Christian Albornoz, who rushed Phi Gamma Delta — also known as FIJI — along with six other new FIJI bothers, said he decided to rush in the fall because it seemed more relaxed than spring rush and he won’t have to rush with freshmen next semester.

“I’d much rather put in the pledging hours in the fall when the weather is ugly and the times are tough anyway so that when spring rolls around I can enjoy the good karma of being a newly-enlisted brother,” Albornoz added.

FIJI president Jonathon Strauss also spoke to the benefits of fall rush for upperclassmen.

“Fall rush was a wonderfully laid back affair,” he wrote in an e-mail. “We ended up doing a kind of hybrid open/closed rush where we contacted friends of brothers within the organization to see if they’d like to join.”

He explained that because the fall class size is significantly smaller than the spring class, FIJI attempted to integrate these new members as quickly as possible.

Not all of the fraternities that participated in rush decided to take new members, however. Pi Kappa Alpha, or Pike, held fall rush but did not take anyone due to a lack of interest by current brothers, according to Pike recruitment chair and Engineering junior Thomas Boutin.

Reikofski said he expects to see a similar level of success with spring rush.

“It has been fairly consistent over the years,” he said. “And given some of the positive outreach that chapters are doing, including collaborative programs and community service, I expect to see the numbers to at least match, if not exceed last year’s.”

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