The dust has settled, and campus has returned to its usual semi-quiet state as another week of Greek recruitment has come and gone. This week of recruitment- commonly referred to as “rush”- is when sophomores have the opportunity to join the various fraternities and sororities associated with Colgate University, and includes numerous events put on to entice potential members to join.This year’s recruitment process was quite successful, with 145 bids accepted for sororities, which is 11 more than last year. The new member classes range between 28 and 41. Fraternities saw 217 bids accepted, with numbers ranging from 19 to 59, with the 59 coming from Beta Theta Pi, which introduced a class of both sophomores and juniors. After adjusting to account for this, the fraternities have had a total of 20 more bids accepted than last year.These strong numbers are especially promising in light of the e-mail sent to students by Dean of the College Weinberg near the beginning of the recruitment process. The Greek system feared that the e-mail, which alluded to the tentative status of the Greek community at Colgate University, might scare off potential pledges.

“The entire fraternity system had a Greek open house last spring that let the current sophomores come down and look at the houses and meet the brothers,” Theta Chi President senior Chris Kinsella said. “I thought that was one of the most significant events of our year-round recruitment.”

Senior President of Delta Upsilon, Bob Mancuso agreed. “The overall rush period went very well, he said. “I think all Greek organizations did very well with numbers. It was nice to see that even with everything happening with the University trying to acquire the Greek houses, numbers did not drop.”

Mancuso also believes that Colgate has a solid Greek system in place for Colgate for students. “I think it will only improve,” he said.Public Relations Chair of the Inter-Fraternity Council (IFC), senior, Brendan Matthews echoed these feelings.

“We are trying to present a positive image of the Greek system to the University,” he said. “We were very pleased with the turnout in light of Dean Weinberg’s e-mail. I think this really shows the vitality of the Greek system.”

Matthews attributes part of this vitality to an advertising campaign last year targeted at the current group of sophomores. “We had an ad campaign focusing on leadership, academics and community service that we posted in first-year dorms,” he said.Starting in the spring semester, fraternities will begin targeting first-year and having discussions on how to improve the recruitment process, in the hopes of seeing this year’s level of success again next year.The sororities also saw quite a bit of success this year. “Recruitment provided a great opportunity for the existing sisters to bond through hard work and long hours put in together,”Vice President of Public Relations for Delta Delta Delta Lauren Mondrone said. “We now have a great group of new members and can’t wait to get to know them better. We will look into evaluating the response to our recruitment parties by speaking to our new members, so we can make any necessary changes next year.”Kappa Alpha Theta sister, junior Allison Stoloff found formal recruitment to be both enjoyable and beneficial.”The recruiting process went really well” she said. “We all had a lot of fun and enjoyed representing Theta. We are really excited about our new members.” Theta accepted 41 bids.Recruitment activities this year ranged the usual gamut of dinners, from surf ‘n’ turf to BBQs, but there were a few standout activities, such as Phi Delta Theta’s “Bash the Buick” and a jousting event on Delta Upsilon’s front lawn.”The whole idea of recruitment is to come down and talk to us, we’re good [people], and have a good time,” Matthews said.