Fraternity family grows as prospectives accept bids

The Interfraternity Council's family just adopted several hundred new siblings. Five hundred and twelve bids were given out last night to freshman and sophomore men during the IFC's annual Bid Signing Night in Meyerson Hall. And while most prospective pledges simply had to choose whether to accept their bid or not, some had to choose between as many as four different fraternities. IFC President and Phi Sigma Kappa brother Hayden Horowitz began the evening with a short speech detailing the two things a fraternity will give to a member -- friends and opportunities. IFC Vice President for Rush and Sigma Phi Epsilon brother Ed Skyler followed with another short speech emphasizing the negative stereotypes that are often attached to being a fraternity member. "From this night on, people are going to expect you to fill an unfortunate stereotype," he said. "I urge you to act responsibly, involve yourself within the University community, and do not fill their inane definition of a frat boy." The keynote speaker was given by Gary Bonas, head of Greek leadership at Villanova University. Speaking mainly on the topic of risk management, Bonas told students that they should never succumb to the pressures of fraternity hazing. "Hazing is a two-way street," he said. "I hope that you have the testicular fortitude to say 'no'." Students at the bid signing said they were pleased with the rush process, and were generally happy with the bids they received. "It was a good time -- the events were fun and I met a lot of people," said College freshman and Alpha Chi Rho pledge Sean Mario. "In the beginning was pretty much against being in a fraternity, but [in the end] I didn't want to pass up the opportunity." The only complaints that prospectives had about the rush process was its length, which was shortened to three weeks this year. "It was too short," said College freshman and Alpha Chi Rho pledge Sam Barton. "I didn't get a chance to go around to every house but I'm pretty happy with where I am." Horowitz said after the event that he was pleased with how rush was handled by the individual chapters. "We laid out the rules and regulations and procedures we wanted to follow from the very beginning," the College senior said. "For the most part, we thought rush ran well because?chapters complied [with the rules]." Horowitz said each chapter gave out a different number of bids -- ranging from six to 33 -- according to its "different goals." And while 512 total bids were offered, 64 of them were "overlaps" -- given to students who had more than one bid. Horowitz added that the total number of accepted bids would not be known for several days. Skyler said he hopes the University will look at the success of this year's rush and reconsider moving it to the spring in the future. "The way to make the strongest case to keeping fall rush is to run a great fall rush," the College senior said. "And that's what we did this year."

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