GATA’s pledge class is at its highest number this year and holds the record for the club’s history.
During last year’s pledge season, GATA had the third highest total number of pledges, trailing Ko Jo Kai and Sigma Theta Chi both with 63. This year, GATA sees excitement and big changes for the new pledge class.
“This class is the biggest pledge class that GATA has ever had,” said Kai Cremer, president of GATA. “It’s so exciting just to see the club grow.”
The excitement spread throughout the club from new pledges to members and alumni.
“The group of girls was such a good quality,” Cremer said. “I think it threw GATA for a loop of how great these girls were and how excited they were for the club. It completely surprised us all.”
The club’s significant jump in numbers can help grow GATA and set the atmosphere for the group. The new pledges and members are both ready to see what’s in store.
“We really want to enrich the sisterhood with this pledge class and really show that GATA is part of something that has been going on for 94 years,” Cremer said. “It’s going to be good.”
This year’s pledge class total is 380 compared to last years 392 students. As of Friday, the women’s pledge class totaled 238 compared to 253 last year.
“GATA had 69, Kojies 67, Siggies 66, Alpha Kai 47, and Zeta Rho four,” said Mark Jackson, associate director of student organizations and programs.
For the men’s pledge classes, Frater Sodalis and Sub T-16 saw a slight increase in pledge numbers. Since last year, Sub T rose from 18 to 21 and Frater Sodalis from 5 to 14.
“We honestly have a lot of diverse students,” said Chris Perkins, Frater Sodalis officer. “This semester, we have a number of transfer students so they all knew each other and decided to pledge together.”
In the past year, numbers of pledges for the men’s clubs total went down from 154 to 135.
“Gamma Sigma Phi had 53, Galaxy 25, SubT-16 21, Trojans 18, Frater Sodalis 14, and Pi Kappa 4,” Jackson said.
As of late Thursday afternoon, Jackson confirmed that at least nine men and women have de-pledged since the beginning of the pledging process last week.
