Look out Wabash, here come the Greeks.
Wabash, an all male school soaked in old traditions, has always had a statistically higher Greek population than other campuses. Although the number of Greeks slipped in recent years, they still held a majority, albeit a dying one. However, this school year the numbers have shot back up, and now Greeks enjoy 67 percent of the student body.
Wabash is finding itself at the end of a ten year plan to renovate and construct new fraternities. Tau Kappa Epsilon has a new house, Delta Tau Delta has a new wing, and Kappa Sigma is waiting patiently for the completion of their new house in fall 2009. With such ambitious fraternity goals, it is no wonder that freshman are vying to rush this year, instead of heading straight for Martindale. However, many other factors have come into play.
“We are quite pleased that this was such a successful year for Greeks,” Associate Dean of Students Rick Warner said. “The improvement from a few years ago is probably due to several factors, including the new housing structures and more importantly, a commitment on the part of fraternity men to explain the fraternity option more clearly to students and families.”
However, the success of the Greeks this fall has followed a long slump. Dean of Students Mike Raters ’85 noticed this slump and knew the fraternities needed some assistance if they wanted their numbers to grow.
“The fraternity men saw that they had a product that needed refining,” Raters said. “Their numbers were down, and so with guidance from the administration, they sought to improve their situation.”
Raters explained that two years ago, Greek life was all about rush. He said they wanted large numbers of pledges, but they weren’t able to maintain them. This is known as “body bidding” in the Greek world.
Then the Inter-Fraternity Council, led by President Jim Leuck, realized how large an issue de-pledging is and the IFC tried to fix the problem.
“We’re more focused on parent communication,” Leuck ’09 said. “The parents are more informed about Greek life, so they have less fear and worry about a son pledging a fraternity.”
According to Tim Kraft ’11, the IFC is attempting to make rush more specific and efficient. Leuck noted that the IFC doesn’t want body bids, but wants students to stay in fraternities. Leuck also said the IFC worked diligently to keep the students as informed as possible.
Most fraternity men agree that rush this year has been extremely effective. President of Tau Kappa Epsilon, Richard Hogue ’09, felt this years was a great success for his house.
“We were hoping for fifteen to eighteen, and we got fifteen,” said Hogue. “We are more organized this year, we rushed hard Honor Scholar Weekend, and we had an extensive summer rush. The new house has been a great attraction, but it hasn’t reduced the quality of guys we rush, and it hasn’t affected how we interact as a brotherhood.”
To put things in perspective, the TKE brotherhood consisted of 23 members in 2005. Now, three years later, the house has nearly doubled, with 47 members this fall. Other fraternities on campus are experiencing this cascading effect.
“Our rush went extremely well this year and I think that a large part of our success was due to the people in the admissions office and coaches directing freshman in the right direction,” said Delt John Melind ’10. “The admissions office worked wonders, letting us know exactly who was going to be here for Honor Scholar Weekend. It also helps when coaches see good things in your house and send many of their recruits to visit and experience fraternity life.”
Lambda Chi Alpha President John Holmes ’09 said much more effort went into this year’s incoming class than last year’s because of the fraternity drought.
“For us, our main success was due keeping in constant contact with prospective throughout the summer,” said Holmes. “These events helped the prospective get to know the brothers and who we are as a fraternity.” Raters applauded the Greek community for the efforts to recruit and retain freshmen pledges this academic year.
“I am very impressed,” Raters said. “It is also practical, from the perspective of my office. Now there are more students living in Greek houses, which were not at capacity, and this also opens up room for independents. Now triples can be triples, instead of quads, and so on. The independents had a hand in that; they were less competitive and even encouraged freshmen to rush fraternities.”
Associate Dean of Students Rick Warner said he was quite pleased that this was such a successful year for Greeks.
“The improvement from a few years ago is probably due to several factors,” Warner said, “including the new housing structures and more importantly, a commitment on the part of fraternity men to explain the fraternity option more clearly to students and families.”