Imagine our joy when, this morning, an "important update" dropped into our inbox from the Interfraternity Council: Greek membership has exploded from 550 in 2006 to an astonishing 823 today! That's over 50 percent growth in two years, to just about 10 percent of Barnard, the College and SEAS. There are comfortably over twice as many brothers as sisters, not counting members of the Multicultural Greek Council, which is composed of frats and sororities that carry an ethnic identity.

Curious to see who had cleaned up in fall rush, Bwog asked Interfraternity Council president Matt Heiman for the frat-by-frat membership breakdown, but was informed that the information was "not public." Heiman said that we "could try contacting the fraternities individually to get this information, but I think it will be difficult."

Heiman attributed the increase in membership to "strong leadership of fraternity and sorority presidents" as well as a more collective approach in increasing the Greek community's presence and involvement on campus. His own organization, the IFC, was only formed last year as a parallel to the girls-only Panhellenic Council (plus there's the overarching InterGreek Council...we know, it's confusing).

If one was passing through campus early this evening, one might have seen a crowd of over a hundred people gathered in a circle on the Low steps. It's even more likely though, that one might have simply heard the crowd, as the music was loud enough to turn heads on the other side of Broadway.

Inside the circle, the crowd-- who were all bundled up in hats and mittens-- was a much smaller circle of the five newest spring 2008 Alpha Kappa Alpha inductees. The five girls wore short-sleeved black minidresses, tights, and sky-high black heels. "They must be cold," the man who seemed to be in charge of the music whispered to another onlooker.

If you're just hearing about this now, it's too late to join. But all should be advised that this is sorority rush week, when the girlish greek quartet cheers their new class through a gauntlet of meet and greets (colorfully described by DG's website). So if, come Friday, you run into a throng of terrifyingly peppy young women, do not be alarmed. It's normal.

This year, though, it's kind of different: the Panhellenic Council agreed in April that they will no longer allow freshmen to rush in the fall, making it a sophomore-only event (meaning the rejects and the late bloomers?). But it's apparently still enough to keep the new-ish SDA Greek Czar Victoria Lopez-Herrera and both the Intergreek Council and the Multicultural Greek Council presidents so busy that they couldn't take an interview with Bwog for the foreseeable future. You'll have to go flag them down yourself with questions.

Meanwhile, this is Bwog's favorite quote from the Columbia greek site:

Alcohol & Recruitment
The purpose of recruitment is to spend time getting to know each other. Therefore, all fraternity and sorority recruitment/intake/rush events and education processes at Columbia University are DRY. This means that no alcohol will be used or present during any recruitment function whether it is one-on-one or in a large group...If this happens, you should seriously consider whether or not you want to join a chapter with such low integrity.

Happy rushing!

- LBD

According to multiple sources, next year's freshmen will get a break--the Panhellenic council has voted to phase out first-year fall rush, since the new girls don't have time to get used to school and see what greek life is about before signing into sisterhood. In 2007, only sophomores will be allowed to rush in the fall, and the year after all recruitment will occur in spring, giving potential pledges a full semester to talk themselves out of joining.

Meanwhile, on the other end of our college careers, today marks the beginning of "E-commerce} for senior week [Correction: Senior week proper starts May 10], complete with a website that seems to actually include a grey silhouette of a naked woman and a bolder silhouette in the foreground of a guy smoking. Almost as bizarrely, the 14-person senior week committee includes six Barnard girls, five SEAS kids, and three CC students.

Anyhow, hooray for 2007. Six Flags awaits you!

Fancy a bit of Greek this weekend? Then allow Bwog to present Mike and Sarah, representing Delta Sigma Phi and Kappa Alpha Theta in this week's Personals. If you want either of these two to help you write your own personal Odyssey, email bwgossip@columbia.edu and let us know. If it's a match, we'll spring $5 for a date. And remember: if you or anyone you know would like to be a Personal, drop us a line! We're forever accepting nominations.

Girl for tall, good-looking, well-rounded, nice guy	Guy for an easy way out of his seminar research

Bwog doesn't have the cash to "pimp your room," and we certainly don't want to raid it and then date you. So we bring you the semi-weekly feature, the "Cribs-esque" Room Hopping, continuing with...

It may be a brownstone on 114th street, but don't walk into the sorority EAT (Sigma Delta Tau) expecting Animal-House-caliber mayhem. Don't expect to hear the high pitched cooing of girls in pajamas having pillow fights. And certainly don't expect to smell that effluvia of sweat, beer, and vomit that always says "Go Greek!"

"It smells very much unlike the frats, which smell like death when you walk in," said Rachael, one of the lucky fourteen residents of EAT's brownstone. "We're a clean bunch."

Rachael (above, right) and her roommate Maxie, both C'09, say they are so glad to live in a clean-smelling (boy, does it smell clean!), wood-panelled, wood-floored brownstone, complete with a large and comfy living room, big screen TV, full kitchens, dining rooms and fireplaces. The house also has its very own laundry room, but Bwog was forbidden to enter it, since it is used as the 61-member sorority's "Chapter Room." "Only sisters are allowed in," Rachael says.

With such a nice house, the temptation to entertain and throw parties is great. But state brothel laws prohibit them from doing so. At least the law in New York defining women living together with alcohol as a brothel is not as prohibitive as brothel laws in in Winston-Salem, where Rachael says, "six women with their feet off the ground is considered a brothel."

Tomorrow is a big day for all you Sorority hopefuls out there: starting at noon, dreams will be made and hearts broken as new member bids become available for pickup in Lerner. This moment represents the culmination of nearly a week of Formal Recruitment events—the details of which, to many Columbia students, are nearly as big of a mystery as why anyone would want to join a sorority in the first place. To shed a bit of light on the situation, Bwog regales you with a run-down of the process, followed by the Cliff-Notes version of key pages of the Fall Recruitment Handbook (available here online; click on "handbook" at the bottom of the list of links).

On Sunday, all interested "potential members" started the pledge process by attending four different introductory parties, each thrown by one of Columbia's four sororities, to give future members a taste of what each group was all about. Parties lasted one-half hour each and did not overlap. On Monday, all those who were still interested went to four more parties. Again, each was thrown by a different sorority, but this time, the parties had a philanthropic theme, meant to introduce potential members to the respective Sisterhoods' highest standards of community service. On Tuesday, "Skit Night," potential members were allowed to go to a maximum of three parties, chosen through "mutual selection." As the handbook tells us, "During each party, members of the host sorority will put on a skit what will allow you to become more familiar with its sisterhood." Fun!

Tonight, everyone who has stuck with the process throughout the week will get all fussied up in formal dress and attend a maximum of two parties. At each party, potential members will "share in a special ceremony coordinated by the host sorority to mark your entry into the Greek community." This is new member's final chance to decide whether or not greek life is rigt for them. At the end of the night, each recruit will a "preference card" stating which sorority is her first choice. Bids are made tomorrow at noon: those who receive one are totally in.

After the jump, we turn to the handbook.