A crowd of men and women strolling through campus in semi-formal wear and eye-catching name tags can only mean one thing - it's time for Greek Rush.

Rush, which was first used as a term to describe fraternity men rushing to train stations to greet incoming freshmen at the beginning of each school year, is an event in which students go through a selection process to become members of a fraternity or sorority.

At the University of Arizona, Sorority "Rush Week" began Aug. 17 and comes to an end tonight. Fraternities will kick off their rush activities at a mandatory information meeting Sunday at 7 p.m. in the Arizona Ballroom of the Memorial Student Union.

To participate in rush, women must pay a fee of $95. This semester, the $35 fee was waived for men.

Ryan Anderson, vice president of membership for the Interfraternity Council, said rush has been decreasing in size over the last 10 years, but the fee elimination has made the number of rushees skyrocket.

He said IFC is expecting between 750 and 800 men to rush this year, while last year, there were only 400. The last time UA had more than 600 rushees was in 1991.

For sororities, the number of women interested in rushing increased, said Randy Phelan, a spokesman for the Panhellenic Council. This year, 540 women rushed.

Phelan said this is probably because there will be no spring sorority rush in 1997. He said rush was too expensive and time-consuming to hold twice a year.

Individual sororities, however, may still invite people on their own to rush in the spring, he said.

Anderson said that no official decision had been made whether or not the Interfraternity Council will hold rush in spring 1997.

Phelan said the Panhellenic Council requires each rushee to visit all 13 sorority houses and attend all rush functions to which she is invited. Once she has seen all the sororities, she narrows her selection down to her favorite nine.

For preference night, the rushee picks the three sororities she would like to join. If one of them gives her a bid, a match is made and she is invited to become a pledge. Any rushee who does not accept her bid cannot seek membership in other sororities or participate in Greek events for one year, Phelan said.

Fraternity rushees are not required to go to all the houses. They can go to as many or as few as they wish, Anderson said.

A rushee can even do what has come to be known as "suiciding," which is visiting only one or two houses, Anderson said. This limits his options of seeking bids at other fraternities.

Unlike the women, a fraternity rusher does not have to narrow down his choices. He can get bids from one house or all 20 fraternities that participate in formal rush. Anderson said most rushees average 4 or 5 bids.

Phelan said about 50 sorority rushees will usually leave rush before the end of the week. Ninety-nine percent of those who stay will get bids, he said.

Of the 400 men who rushed last year, 66 percent received bids to fraternities, and two-thirds of those accepted, Anderson said.

According to information from the UA's Greek Life office, about 15 percent of UA students are Greek.

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