While most students are adjusting to new classes and avoiding the black ice around Grounds, hundreds of prospective fraternity and sorority members have crowded the Rugby Road area, resulting in a record number of recruitment participants for both the Inter-Fraternity Council and Inter-Sorority Council.
Sorority recruitment drew to a close Monday morning, as 603 University women received bids.
"We had the highest number of registrations with 829, and we matched 603," ISC President Laura Anne Kuykendall said, adding that sorority pledge classes are larger this year as well.
According to Kuykendall, the women received their bids Monday morning and were then given approximately three hours to accept.
Overall, Kuykendall reported that the week of recruitment was successful.
"The whole week went really well," Kuykendall said. "We were really lucky with the weather ... the week went smoothly, and we didn't have any incidents occur."
While many female students are celebrating admission to the sororities of their choice, recruitment is just beginning for hundreds of first- and second-year men hoping to join a fraternity.
According to Chambliss Shillinglaw, IFC chairman for membership intake, the IFC also saw a record number of participants this year with 700 potential recruits.
Shillinglaw pointed out, however, that the greater number of participants does not necessarily translate to larger pledge classes.
"It's up to fraternities to decide if they want to get bigger or stay the same size that they are," Shillinglaw said.
The fraternity recruitment process kicked off with Open House rounds Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and the first round of invites were extended Sunday, IFC President Charlie Morgan said.
Between now and Bid Day, held Feb. 2, fraternities will extend three rounds of invitations.
"The invites are progressively more intimate," Morgan said. "The first night you could have 100 guys, the next night you might take only 40 or 50, and the third might be dinner with the 20 guys you want in your fraternity."
Morgan added that the IFC will remain extremely busy until Bid Day.
"On Bid Day we walk around the dorms working with [Resident] Staff to make sure there are no unnecessary disruptions ... and to make sure that no brothers are pressuring rushees to take bids," Morgan said, adding that recruits have a six-hour period to consider their bids before accepting.
"This is a stressful time for the IFC, because all of the fraternities are active every day," Morgan said. "From so much activity, there's always bound to be a couple of incidents, but so far it's been pretty smooth."
According to Michael Citro, assistant dean of fraternity and sorority life, the recruitment process has been going smoothly so far for both fraternities and sororities.
"This is an exciting time for a lot of new members joining their organizations and we're excited about how our groups are managing the process"
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