Thirty women are pledging women’s social club Zeta Rho in a process of revamping the club.
Zeta Rho, founded in 1944, had 11 members when the fall rush process started. With more than 388 women in the pledging process, Tom Craig, director of student activities and productions, said this year’s pledging numbers are the largest in the university’s recent history.
Dr. Kristina Davis, Zeta Rho sponsor, said in previous years the club offered bids to everyone who didn’t get a bid from the club they wanted to get a bid from.
“We saw the need in that there 5 clubs right now and are full to the max,” Davis said. “We can provide something where girls feel welcomed, loved and accepted and still get all the advantages of being part of a social club.”
Zeta Rho president Luthien McCurdy said on call night many girls expected to get a bid from the club of their choice but with the number of girls rushing, it was not an option for every girl.
“It sucks, to be honest, it does because you have this vision in your mind of what you want and what your going to get and your dreams are crushed right there,” said McCurdy, senior kinesiology major from Graham, Texas.
Hannah Vance, junior communication major from Irving, and Macy Carter, sophomore communications major from San Antonio, received bids from Zeta Rho and decided to join the club along with other girls who didn’t get their first-choice club. Carter said within 12 hours after call night they found 20 girls wanted to join Zeta Rho and revamp the club.
Davis said the club did an unanimous vote to let the girls revamp the club. McCurdy said it was not hard to make the revamping decision because they knew the club had to change to attract more people.
“We just didn’t have the people or the numbers or the personalities to make that happen,” McCurdy said. “That’s where Macy and Hannah come in because they are so driven to do this.”
Carter, Vance, McCurdy, and Davis said they are not changing the club name, they are not coming back as a different club, and they are not re-chartering. Davis also said Zeta Rho had two bid nights and they still have pledging with the same required pledging hours every club has.
Other girls who didn’t go through the rushing process, but knew about the changes in Zeta Rho, also decided to pledge. While the club will do a Homecoming alumni breakfast, the club will not participate in the homecoming parade. Vance said they are taking that time to focus on the club and they hope to have a “public relations year” to get Zeta Rho recognized on campus.
“Another goal from all of us that we want to see is for people to be accepting of this because it has been a little rough, but awesome and amazing,” Carter said.
Craig said the club system functions better when all clubs are equal in size. Women’s clubs average about 100-150 girls.
“So when that happens it creates more synergy on campus and that’s what everyone is excited about,” Craig said. “It will give the club new life, it will change the dynamics of the club and it will give them a great presence on campus.”
Davis said after Homecoming the club will get jerseys and drops about the same time as other clubs, with plans to keep the club’s navy and white colors but potentially add some more colors.
“I think there is another mentality that the girls have been coming in without pledging but in fact they have had two bid nights,” Davis said. “They had a bid night than we had the original bid night. We are still pledging and everything, like normal.”
The club officers will stay in the same positions although a few open positions will be filled. The club will have regular officer elections in March.
