FOCUS: Behind Panhel Rush

Complex and veiled in secrecy, sorority rush requires a lot of hard work and planning in order to be successful Andrea Dobin's roommate was an art student, which made rushing sororities a great deal easier for her. The roommate made the costumes, Dobin wore them. She had it easy. In years past, rushees at Dobin's alma mater, Cornell University, had to wear a different costume to each of the 14 houses there -- every night. Dobin, though, needed only one costume each night. And, while now the rushees were permitted to change inside the houses, before "they were changing in the bushes," she said. "It's January, it's ten degrees, and there are ten inches of snow on the ground." Archaic, she said. A lot has changed since undergraduate days at Cornell for Dobin, an Alpha Phi alumnus who now directs the Greek Alumni Council here at the University. Cornell sororities' rushees now dress in ordinary clothes, and interestingly, follow a rush process very similar to the one that the University's Panhellenic Council runs, according to Mary Alice Lee, a Cornell senior and president of Alpha Phi there. In fact, sororities at many Ivy League Universities and most other colleges around the country follow the National Panhellenic rush -- each with their own traditions. "The Panhel rush system is determined on the national level," Dobin said. But for students outside the Greek system, and for many of the 386 freshman and sophomore women new to Panhel this year, one thing has not changed. Rush is as much a mystery to outsiders now as it always has been. For two weeks every year, groups of female students are seen walking around campus in packs. On some days, their dress is informal. Other times, it looks like a business convention. Each year, The Daily Pennsylvanian reports the number of women who rush and the number of women who receive bids. "Did they make quota?" is a common question. For the participants, there are equally as many unknowns. Panhel's sorority rush is distinct from fraternity rush -- partly because there is a great deal of centralized, behind-the-scenes organization. "I don't think [even] the rushees quite understand how it works," Dobin said. And while most outsiders and many pledges only see the results -- the rho chis, the presentations, the skits, and the invites and bids -- Panhel rush is actually a massive, complicated effort. "It's like a double-sided process, because you have what's going on the surface and behind the scenes," said Liz Shain, Panhel vice president of rush and a College senior. Through the entire two week process, Panhel board members and alumni work on "tons of administrative things" -- all leading to the final day, when rushees open a single envelop that will determine both the woman's future and that of her house. And this 12-day event is orchestrated every year by dedicated undergraduates and alumni -- not only at the University, but at hundreds of Panhel schools around the country. Cornell's Lee said in the Northeast, many campuses share similar rush traditions. "But in the South, its pretty different," she said. Very different. "Our system at UT is very notorious ?very malicious and impersonal," said Leith Ann Stock, a University of Texas senior and president of the Alpha Phi chapter there. Students here at the University who complained last week that the first events of rush were, literally, too "rushed" may not have heard about UT. Freshmen and sophomores at the Austin, Texas campus of 32,000 have quite a few people to visit in one night. And it is the tough selection process -- not the sheer numbers -- that makes UT famous. University of Texas sororities participate in two rushes each year, a formal system in the fall and a more easy-going second round in January. "If you don't get your full pledge class in the fall, you [hold rush] in the spring," she said. Like Texas, Panhel rush at Princeton University is in the fall -- for good reason. "We have exams in January," said Kappa Alpha Theta President and Princeton senior Megan Wellford. "It gets really chaotic." Princeton rush, though, is a great deal less stressful than those at larger schools. Parties on the first night last as long as 45 minutes, according to Wellford, who added that Princeton only has three sororities. "We obviously don't have ten houses to go to," she said. Amidst complaints over the years that rush is too stressful, Panhellenic organizations at some schools have moved to make rush easier for their first and second year students -- many of whom compare rush to the first week of college all over again. "At some campuses its a big production?our Panhel at Cornell has tried to make it a more paired-down, kind of no-frills rush," Lee said. Despite efforts to make rush more palatable for new students, one of the most stressful aspects of the process -- choosing one or two houses after only a short exposure to each -- is universal. It was early last Sunday morning when a group of alumni gathered in High Rise North to perform the enormous task of matching women with houses. It is called "bid matching," and it is a process veiled in secrecy. Undergraduates are forbidden from participating in the process -- instead, it takes a team of experienced alumni. "You gotta get pros," Dobin said. In fact, the details of how each pledge gets matched with a house is understood only by the few alumni that take part year after year. And the computer. Imagine trying to please 400 women on the verge of a new part of life, and at the same time thousands of women representing eight organizations each with their own preferences. No pressure, really. Dobin said even the computer does not produce perfect results -- the alumni take the computer's work and work with it even more. But somehow, the system is a success every year. "Its amazing...the percentage of sorority rushees that get their first house because their first house wants them," Dobin said. "It's designed that way." The "system" began this year as it does every year -- with over 500 girls who virtually have no idea what the next two weeks will bring them. After a two-day whirlwind of "open parties" events begin to take shape. Houses begin to organize "theme" events; rushees spend more time at each house. "Then after that, on Sunday the rushees were allowed to rank out of the houses that they saw?their first four preferences," Shain said of this year's rush. Yet the stress is sometimes not limited to the rushees. Rush is a crucial time for every sorority -- their strategy is important because cutting too many rushees can be dangerous, but cutting too few can cause trouble also. And just as women waiting for invites face the prospect of rejection, sororities -- already over a week into the process when they receive the results of rushees' preferences -- face the possibility of low turnout. "Last year Kappa was new and a lot of people wanted not to go back to Kappa," Princeton's Wellford said. But she said this year the sorority worked with their Panhellenic Council and came through with a large turnout. At the University last semester, Kappa Delta was forced to declare dormancy and place its members on alumni status after years of difficulty recruiting new members. For alumni like Dobin, rush is a time to come back to the house and help out -- and an opportunity to see what has changed. "The girls laugh at me when they hear what I went through," she said.

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