440 bids offered this Rush
During MIT fraternity Rush this fall, 375 rushees were offered a total of 440 bids (one person can receive more than one bid), which is an average of 1.18 bids per person, according to statistics provided by Interfraternity Council (IFC) president Thomas A. Anderson ’13. As of Monday, 324 rushees (86.4 percent) have pledged. MIT’s Panhellenic Association offered 173 bids this year, after 350 women registered for the first day of recruitment.
The total number of bids given during rush decreased from 455 in 2011 and 470 in 2010, but the number of students receiving one or more bid increased slightly from 369 in 2011 and 367 in 2010. As such, the average number of bids per rushee was lower this year than in recent years (1.23 bids per person in 2011, and 1.28 in 2010).
This year marked the return of Phi Beta Epsilon to Rush, after being barred from extending bids to new members in 2010. PBE ended up with the the most pledges this year, with a class that included freshmen, sophomores, and juniors, followed by Alpha Delta Phi.
“The return of Phi Beta Epsilon had no significant effect on the numbers,” wrote Anderson in an email to The Tech.
“Speaking as both a Rush chair for my house (for both this year and the last) and on behalf of the IFC, it was a very safe, hassle-free Rush, comparable to last year,” wrote Anderson, who continued to say that “only a few minor violations occurred.”
One change to Rush this year was that, due to a regulation passed by the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC), women in sororities were not permitted to be Rush girls for fraternity Rush events. (Rush girls are friends of the house who help out with events during Rush.) The NPC’s new policy, which was based on the Unanimous Agreement X — intended to protect sororities’ single-sex status — was adopted by MIT Panhel and was in effect for Rush this year.
Aside from that, the only minor, but noteworthy, change to Rush this year was that the Kickoff and the Greek Griller were moved from Killian Court to Kresge Oval, “as a result of the loss of the Freshman Class Picture on Saturday from the shortening of Orientation,” wrote Anderson.