Sororities give out 386 bids

Two weeks of roaming about campus, meeting people and dressing to impress paid off for 386 freshman and sophomore women who received bids from eight Panhellenic Council sororities in a tense, crowded Bodek Lounge event Sunday afternoon. "I was completely traumatized," said College freshman Melissa Bernstein, who received a bid from Kappa Alpha Theta. Rush also paid off for the hundreds of sorority sisters and Panhel board members who spent weeks preparing for the highly coordinated events that began two weeks ago tonight. The number of pledges this year was up from last year -- even though fewer rushees began the trip than did last January. And despite some scheduling problems the first night, organizers said the process as a whole was successful. "We had a little bit of timing trouble on the first night but the rest of the two weeks went extremely well," Panhellenic Council President and College senior Suzanne Rosenberg said. The mild weather may have played a large role in the increased numbers -- since last year, women had to trudge through ice and bitter cold. "Thankfully the weather wasn't what it was when I rushed," Rosenberg said. Bernstein said events improved leading up to Sunday. "At the beginning I didn't like it," she said, adding though that as events progressed, each rushee was able to spend more time at individual houses. "As you got down to just four [houses to visit], you just had really good conversations," she said. Every year, about one-third of the original rushees choose not to seek a bid or do not receive one. This year, 220 of the original 606 did not make it to Sunday at Bodek. But some said last night the experience was still worth the effort. And for those that opened bids Sunday, the future holds another busy two weeks and the new experience of pledging. Most new pledges held meetings last night with their respective sororities. This year was the first Panhel rush in 73 years without member chapter Kappa Delta, which declared dormancy last semester due to low membership. The problems KD faced that led up to the disbandment are on the minds of many sisters during bid week -- while each house wants to be selective, there is pressure to not cut too many prospective pledges because only a fraction of those who complete the rush practice will actually receive bids to any given house. But College senior and Vice President of Rush Liz Shain said all Panhel chapters were happy with their pledge numbers. "All the sororities did really well," she said.

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