Apparently a deferred rush program can work if executed properly.
“I don’t think the housing rule played into it,” Dick (Michael Dick, ’05, IFC president) said. “The majority are doing it for more important reasons than sophomore housing.”
Dick said the turnout is auspicious for the Greek system in future years.
“It’s good to have sophomores in the system,” he said. “It shows promise for future years that kids actually do want to rush and join houses as late as sophomore year.”
[...]
There is also the “post-rush” program, similar to continuous open bidding for females, where houses in need of more pledges can offer bids to interested students throughout the semester, he said.
This year, no fraternities had a pledge class too large to accomidate.
“Nothing says you can have too many pledges,” said Thomas Schaible, ’05, Sigma Phi Epsilon recruitment chairman. “The worst that could happen is people can’t live in the house. No one’s in that situation, but it’s a good thing.”
A major change to this year’s system was moving men’s recruitment from the fall semester to the first few weeks of spring semester.
“I think it was a real good time to have strong numbers,” Dick said. “It calms a lot of the skepticism that the new system wouldn’t work.”
