White fraternities and sororities get most of their members before they even enter school, drawing from a dense network of legacies and recruiting of students still in high school. Some fraternities draw almost exclusively from certain communities, he said. Whether Sorensen and university administrators ask for more changes to the system depends on their evaluation of this semester's rush. Administrators thus far have been pleased with the cooperation from the Greek organizations, and hope for good results from spring rush. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education , fraternity membership nationwide has plunged as much as 30 percent in the past decade, after hitting a record of about 400,000 undergraduates in 1990.
Membership is essentially stable at Alabama, though.
As of this fall, about 2,900 students were in the UA Greek system, comprising about 20 percent of the undergraduate student population. At some colleges, administrators have cut back on institutional support for Greek organizations. At Bowdoin, Colby, Waynesburg and Williams colleges, the groups have been booted from the campus. Dartmouth has been wrestling with its system. UA is not interested in going as far as some colleges have, said Kathleen Randall, the associate vice president of student affairs.