If there are less people carrying around paddles with Greek letters this semester, blame the weather.

Torrential downpours and muddy conditions last weekend canceled this semester’s Rush the Row event, scheduled for Sunday, potentially preventing hundreds of Greek hopefuls from taking the essential first step toward joining a fraternity.

The Interfraternity Council, which planned the event, envisioned it would transform Fraternity Row into an information extravaganza with a D.J., pizza and booths where brothers would greet potential members, pass out flyers and rush schedules, said David Engorn, president of Zeta Beta Tau.

Instead, anyone who showed up saw only closed doors and a field full of mud, while those who didn’t missed out on schedules and information about the upcoming week. Now, some fraternity presidents say their recruitment numbers are suffering because of the rain cancellation.

“It was pretty big that it got canceled,” said Eric Grosshandler, president of Pi Kappa Alpha. “I’d love for rush to be longer. We would get a better sense of who would be best for our fraternity. We’re not getting the numbers right now that we want.”

The canceled kick off wasn’t the only damper on the crucial recruitment week. The next big day for recruitment, Labor Day, presented problems for many freshmen living on North Campus because the shuttle did not run due to the holiday and many students didn’t want to walk in the drizzly weather, Engorn said.

At Pi Kappa Alpha’s first official rush event, “Meet the Brothers” at Bentley’s Tuesday night, only about 45 to 50 students showed up, Grosshandler said.

Similarly, Engorn estimated the number of potential new Zeta Beta Tau members coming to events has decreased by about 30 percent compared to last fall.

He said other presidents on the row have told him they’re experiencing similar drops in turnout.

The low turnout attendance was especially surprising because many fraternities expected a rise in rush numbers after two popular fraternities lost university recognition over the summer. There has been an overall increase in numbers during the past few years, said Eric Gandhi, president of Alpha Tau Omega. He attributes the trend to increased interest from students and better recruitment efforts.

To salvage the rest of the week, fraternities are scheduling events that were most popular in the past for the final days of rush, leading up to bid day early next week.

Barbecues, wings and crab feasts were winners last year, said Erik Ramseth, president of Tau Kappa Epsilon.

“Rush isn’t over – there are new kids coming out every day,” said Matt Riggin, IFC Vice President of Recruitment. “Fall numbers are always down. Spring rush just recruits more people.”

Contact reporter Jillian Zuller at newsdesk@dbk.umd.edu.