By
Benjamin Kim
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Fraternities also looking for increased numbers for next week's recruitment
As hundreds of women have scrambled during the past week sampling many different sororities of the UA greek community, hundreds of men will be participating in fraternity rush beginning on Sunday night.
More than 680 women participated in rush, said Kathy Adams Reister, University of Arizona coordinator of Greek Life programs. This number is up slightly from last year, when about 670 were involved in recruitment activities.
The numbers don't parallel the almost 1,000 participants of rush in the late 1980s and early 90s, but Reister said involvement should soon increase.
"The greek community is on a gradual upswing in the number of recruitment participation," Reister said. "More women are going to college, and more are coming to the UA."
Rush concluded yesterday when students found out which sororities they received invitations to join.
Alana Shain, a business freshman, said she enjoyed going through rush even though the process was time consuming.
"I got to meet a lot of girls from all over the country and learn about sorority and greek life. It was very entertaining."
As sorority rush ends, fraternities are also hoping for similar success in attracting more participants. Last year, 550 students participated in rush, said Jeff Evans, Interfraternity Council president.
"Our numbers have been down the past few years, but we are looking for a significant increase this year," Evans said.
Two-hundred men have already pre-registered mostly because of more aggressive advertisements and flyer campaigns, Evans said.
"We wanted to outreach to more people," Evans said. "Not a lot of the (freshmen) guys have known about fraternity rush in the past."
To attract even more students to rush, the registration fee was decreased from $20 to $5 this year.
"We hope that guys will see that it's only five dollars and decide to rush," Evans said. "Most of the guys that go through rush end up wanting to get involved (in fraternities)."
UA fraternities decided to institute a minimum 2.9 high school grade point average requirement for incoming freshmen this fall. The change is an attempt to increase their overall grade point average.
For those that don't meet the requirement, Evans recommends that they finish their freshman fall semester with at least a 2.6 average.
Fraternity rush begins Sunday at 6 p.m. with a mandatory meeting in the Memorial Student Union Arizona Ballroom. Students interested in participating in rush will need a copy of their transcripts and the registration fee.
