While most fraternities in the UW’s Greek community recruit members year round, spring quarter tends to bring a unique emphasis to many houses’ recruitment process. With Greek Weekend quickly approaching and accepted high-school seniors looking into living prospects for fall quarter, spring rush is moving into full swing.

“I would assume that definitely a majority of [next year’s pledge class] will be incoming freshmen,” said Nick Davis, a recruitment chairman at Zeta Psi fraternity.

Zeta Psi, along with most other houses in the UW Greek community, is hosting an open house this Saturday to welcome prospective members and their parents. According to the UW’s admissions Web site, about 1,200 freshmen live in the Greek community every year.

While Greek Weekend is geared toward incoming freshmen, houses still actively recruit from the existing student body during spring quarter.

“We generally have about a third to half of our class as current UW students,” Davis said.

Incoming or current UW students typically get involved with rush events by putting their name on the Interfraternity Council’s (IFC) online recruitment list.

When students sign up on the list, they can also include information such as hobbies, what they are looking for in a fraternity and what they hope to get out of the experience.

Recruitment chairs then look at these lists to invite prospective members to events.

While most fraternities only have one pledge class per year, typically during fall quarter, some houses have already recruited heavily enough to have spring pledge classes move in this quarter. Aside from benefits to members who get to move in early, a spring rush class is also advantageous to the houses themselves. Having a fuller house means bringing in more rent money, which helps houses keep up on maintenance and make improvements to their buildings.

This is the first year in recent history that Zeta Psi has had a spring pledge class.

“The extra money we get this spring will go toward house improvements and maintenance that we couldn’t afford, so we can keep the house looking good,” Davis said.

Davis also believes bringing in pledges for spring quarter will help with recruitment efforts for next fall.

While any member of the Greek community will agree that recruiting members is not about money, rush is no cheap business.

Each fraternity sets aside an amount of their annual budget to pay for rush activities, which can range from barbecues to outings at Seahawks games.

Bryce Henley, a recruitment chairman at Chi Psi fraternity, said that the house’s rush budget fluctuates but is several thousand dollars per year.

“We have a lower number budgeted for rush than other frats, I’ve been told,” he said.

Recruitment budgets vary, sometimes greatly, depending on the fraternity. The number of members a house is looking to recruit also varies depending on the house’s specific needs for any given year. While most houses aim for a standard number of about 30 pledges, some houses such as Theta Chi, are aiming to recruit as many as 40 pledges for fall, said Sam Gruse, a recruitment chairman at Theta Chi.

Spring recruitment season officially kicks off this weekend with Greek Weekend but will continue through summer. Sororities have official recruitment in September.

Reach reporter Camden Swita at news@dailyuw.com.

News editor Casey Smith contributed to this story.