Olivia Proffit
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A record number of men participated in Interfraternity Council (IFC) fall rush this year — approximately 1,100, between 300-400 more than usual. Of those, approximately 400 new members were accepted to be part of the Interfraternity Council greek organizations.
“It was really good to see all those guys out there,” IFC President Alex Horncliff said. “Most chapters had a really, really good rush.”
Grant Campanelli — computer science junior, IFC vice president of public relations and vice president of Kappa Sigma — noticed the increase in men who participated in recruitment this year. Fraternities typically give out a maximum of 25 bids each. But this year, Campanelli said, the average number of bids given per house increased to 28.
On average, 25 bids were accepted per house, according to Campanelli — approximately, an 88 percent bid acceptance rate. Before rush, the average number of members per house was 70-75.
“We like having more members,” Campanelli said. “It’s just once we have social events, 120 members each bring somebody, and then it’s 240 members. There’s not really a place in SLO that’s big enough for that.”
Recruitment began on Oct. 7 with the pre-rush barbecue. For the rest of the week, each house hosted events for participants to attend. Because of the large group that rushed, some events had an unusually high number — as many as 400 attendees.
Rush culminated on bid night, which took place last Tuesday. At that time, participants were allowed to accept their bid immediately or take 24 hours to make a decision. Some men received bids from multiple fraternities; in those cases, fraternity members were not allowed to contact the potential new member during the 24-hour period.
However, Campanelli said, most participants didn’t use the decision period. Because of how many people participated, most only rushed one fraternity.
Despite recent controversies with some fraternities, there didn’t seem to be any major changes in rush.
“If anything, it benefited the smaller houses because then people gave them a chance,” Campanelli said.