Interest in joining fraternities made a comeback this semester and initial reports of the Inter-Fraternity Council’s spring recruitment numbers show many more men are joining fraternities than did this past fall.
“There were at least 77 pledges,” said Bob Kickish, president of the Inter-Fraternity Council. “Some of the chapters haven’t gotten their final numbers in yet. Also, not all of the chapters recruited this season.”
Though not all IFC fraternities have tallied or reported their recruitment statistics, the numbers reported so far already indicate a recruitment period more successful than the fall and more successful than previous spring semesters.
“There were a lot more (interested men) this season than last spring. These numbers are significantly higher than past years,” Kickish said. “For instance, my fraternity, Phi (Kappa) Psi, had twice the spring pledges of last year.”
This year’s fall recruitment numbers were significantly smaller than in past years, but success this spring was able to compensate.
“It just seemed like the freshmen this year wanted more time to check out the fraternities on campus,” said Kickish. “Fall is always a bigger rush, but this year it seemed like the big spring numbers made up for the fall.”
Kickish emphasized that more non-Greek letter GW students were getting more involved in Greek life events, and this shift may have boosted this spring’s rush numbers.
“This year lots of non-Greeks showed up to Greek life,” Kickish said. “I think they saw what it was all about. It might have been something (that brought them out this) spring.”
Jordan Teller, vice president of recruitment for the Inter-Fraternity Council said the reputation of the Greek community at GW might be changing.
The community’s getting a more positive connotation here – people are seeing Greek life in a more positive light, and that’s what we’re going for,” Teller said. “As we get more publicity, like through philanthropy events that get our name out there positively, the more good works for the community we do, we do better.”
