Technique Friday, August 26, 2011 • Volume 97, Issue 6 • nique.net
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Freshmen change campus dynamic
Incoming class includes more women, out-of-staters
Ga. college students protest state immigration policy By Emily Cardin Staff Writer
of Georgia, 30 percent are out-of-state domestic students, while nine percent are international students. “In Georgia, we are getting about the same number [of applications]. The real growth is from outside of Georgia. The biggest notables regions are the Northeast, California and China,” Clark said. According to Clark, Tech’s undergraduate class size is expected to be kept relatively constant in the foreseeable future, with the same relative ratio between residents, out of state domestics and international students. Thus, this trend of increasing selectivity is expected to continue as the number of applica-
Georgia was dealt with many new developments in the ongoing immigrations debate on Tuesday, as high school students gathered at the University of Georgia (UGA) to protest immigration policies while authorities began releasing several undocumented immigrants from federal custody farther south. High school students from around the state met at the Arch on UGA’s campus to protest the newly implemented immigration policies regarding the documentation of students’ immigration status. Over 200 students, mainly from the Athens area, identifying themselves as the Georgia Undocumented Youth Alliance (GUYA), staged a mock graduation at the Arch. Many of the protesters then traveled around the northern part of the campus, yelling chants against deportation and ending outside the admission offices. “This is a heated and hotly contested political issue,” says Vicki Birchfield, Associate Professor of INTA. According to GUYA’s website, the protest was in response to the decision by the Board of Regents (BoR) in Oct. to effectively ban students without correct legal documentation from attending five universities in Georgia, starting Fall 2011. Students who cannot prove that they are legal residents or U.S. citizens cannot be admitted to UGA, Georgia State University, Georgia College and State University, Tech and the Georgia Health Sciences University as in-state students, according to the new BoR policy. Undocumented students can still attend these universities, but they must pay the more expensive out-of-state tuition. “I think this is a very complex issue,” said Jordan Lockwood, a second-year BA major. “Education is key to fostering social equity, although tax payers may be unfairly denied the services they de-
See Freshmen, page 4
See Protest, page 4
Photo by Sho Kitamura / Student Publications
The incoming freshman class for the Fall 2011 semester is comprised of approximately 38 percent women. Despite this marked increase in women, the overall male-to-female ratio on campus is relatively unaffected at about 7:3. By Henry Duong Staff Writer
One word used to describe broad groups of college students that evokes the most vivid images and memories is the word “freshman.” This week, Tech welcomed its newest freshman class, the class of 2015, onto campus. The Office of Undergraduate Admission released a statistical profile of the class of 2015 based on the information of accepted students who have mailed in their deposit. The total number of applicants this year was 14,226, a five percent increase from last year and a new record, with Tech accepting 7207 students and receiving 2749 acceptance
deposits. The average high school GPA of the entering class is 3.88, and the average combined SAT score is 2030. Regarding the increasingly competitive admission for undergraduate studies at Tech, the acceptance rate this year was 51.5 percent versus 63 percent just four years ago. “More students are graduating from high schools, and students are applying to more schools these days, but we have seen a bigger growth at Tech than some of our competitors. The bottom line is, [that] it’s a lot harder to get in now,” said Rick Clark, the Director of Undergraduate Admissions. Approximately 60 percent of the class of 2015 are residents of the state
Sorority recruitment experiences record participation By Kamna Bohra Managing Editor
Due to an overall increase in the percentage of women in the incoming freshman class, a record number of 400 girls went through sorority recruitment this past week, and with each girl who filled out a preference card receiving a bid, 315 girls ultimately accepted bids from sororities, according to Armina Khwaja, the Collegiate Panhellenic Council (CPC) President and a fifthyear BA major. Tech hosts nine chapters of sororities, seven of which are national and undergo formal recruitment and two of which are associate members who go through informal recruitment. With chapter totals now at an average of 130 members per sorority at Tech, Khwaja does not expect a new chapter to appear on campus for another five to ten years, despite the increase in women. The establishment of new chapters requires more houses and land space. Furthermore,
not all girls who go through the recruitment process ultimately accept a bid, due to realizations that Greek life is not an appropriate fit or financial stresses. One difference in the recruitment process for this year was to reduce the decorations in each house “to make it more about the conversation, the bonding and the sisterhood,” Khwaja said. Due to the unexpected increase in girls interested in recruitment, CPC made recruitment days longer to accommodate all potential new members. In addition to these changes in sorority recruitment processes, members of sororities are no longer allowed to attend fraternity rush, due to a unanimous vote by 26 delegates to the National Panhellenic Conference. The reasoning behind this change to the Greek rush and recruitment process is that Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 reserves fraternities’ and sororities’
rights to be single-sex organizations, so a mix of genders at Greek rush and recruitment forfeits those rights to stay single-sex organizations, according to Khwaja. “I think it helped put the focus of recruitment on the sororities themselves and allowed girls to make decisions based on what each sorority represents, and not so much on who they associate with,” said Judy Bau, Vice President of Member Recruitment at Alpha Phi and a fifth-year ISyE major. While this was a culture change and adjustment for Tech students, members of Greek life at Auburn, Clemson, UGA and Emory did not experience much change, as it is not part of their campus cultures for students to attend rush or recruitment for groups of the opposite gender. CPC asked chapter presidents to hold their respective members accountable for this policy change, but if multiple offenses occur, CPC would take over with its own judicial processes.
Photo by Virginia Lin / Student Publications
Of 400 girls who participated in Greek recruitment, 315 accepted bids. Run for the Roses then allows girls to meet each other and fraternity members.