KSC fraternities handed out a total of 16 bids following the formal Interfraternity Council (IFC) recruitment week.
The recruitment week kicked off on Wednesday, Jan. 31, with a preview informational night on KSC’s four fraternities: Alpha Sigma Phi (Alpha Sig), Delta Tau Delta (Delt), Sigma Pi and Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE).
Bid day, Feb. 5, saw Alpha Sig handing out eight bids, while TKE gave out six and Sigma Pi gave out two. Delt did not give out any bids at the event.
Delt, which became a chartered fraternity in spring 2022, has three years to gain at least fifteen members to maintain its charter from the national organization, according to a previous interview with sophomore Charlie Baxter, director of recruitment.
According to the Fall 2023 Community Standards Report, Delt has a total of 11 members.
Bid numbers do not give the total number of new members for an organization overall, as they do not include continuous open bidding (COB) numbers, in which a fraternity can recruit members outside of the formal recruitment week in the spring.
Feb. 2 and Feb. 3 were “Round Robin,” nights that took place in the Night Owl Café which were open to any potential new members (PNM). Fraternities hosted game nights, trivia and meet-and-greets.
Going into the weekend, fraternities hosted invite-only events for PNM’s to attend in preparation for Feb. 5, bid day.
Junior Eric Silverstein, who serves as vice president of growth at Alpha Sig, said the fraternity’s recruitment theme this year was based around bikers.
“We [did] a Mario Kart tournament [with] bikes only, so we’ll stick with that theme and make things a little more interesting,” Silverstein said.
Alpha Sig’s Feb. 4 event was Wings and Things, which Silverstein said was a similar concept to the Hot Ones talk show, where host Sean Evans interviews celebrities while they eat spicy chicken wings.
Silverstein said the fraternity has seen more success with interactive types of events in the past.
“Those are some of the more important events where guys realize ‘Okay, these are the people that I can see myself, in 10 years, talking and doing the same things I’m doing now,’” Silverstein explained.
Silverstein said Alpha Sig looks for PNMs that show the fraternity’s values and beliefs. “People overall that we think are good people that will benefit the brotherhood very greatly,” he said.
In terms of numbers, Silverstein had said he was looking to exceed spring 2023’s new member class, which consisted of 12 new members. “We’re looking to do at least 13 but I’ve set my eyes at 20 and I’m hoping we can get there, but if we don’t then it’s okay,” he said.
Senior Nicholas Pope, director of recruitment at Sigma Pi, said the fraternity hosted an invite-only game night on Feb. 3 where they played Mario Kart and poker with PNMs, while Feb. 4 was a Boston Celtics watch party.
“This was a good group of guys that were willing to talk to anyone and not be so introverted and it was a great way to communicate and it felt like everyone was willing to talk and just learn about us,” Pope said.
Pope said the game night was more engaging for PNMs than the Celtics watch party.
“We felt, while the Celtics game was great, we found that we weren’t talking as much because we were also invested into the game,” Pope said.
When it comes to the characteristics that Sigma Pi looks for in PNMs, Pope said there were a few.
“We really strive for anyone who shows interest, who shows that they want to grow with us. We don’t want to limit someone’s possibilities so if someone is willing to grow and build off of us then we will be there to support them,” Pope said.
The fraternity had one goal in mind with this year’s recruitment: Replacing graduating seniors. “We have six graduating seniors so we would love for six new members or more,” Pope said.
Sophomore Lucas Hare, TKE rush chair, said he felt good about the group they got. “They seem like they’re driven and they know what they want and they’re going to go get it and I feel like all the other brothers see that too which is why we were so locked in in getting it done,” Hare said.
Numbers-wise, Hare said the fraternity views them optimistically. “We were expecting a couple more but ultimately we got a good amount that are locked in,” he said.
Hare said TKE is appealing for a few reasons. “We’re a breath of fresh air compared to some of the other organizations in terms of how we work and our activities and interest as well so it’s our display versus theirs,” he said.
Baxter did not respond to multiple requests to comment
Nathan Hope can be contacted at
nhope@kscequinox.com
