The Observer, January 28, 2005
Volume XXXVII, Issue 15
Greek communties wrap up recruitment process
The campus Greek community is nearing the end of this semester's recruitment period, as both fraternities and sororities are in the process of selecting new members.
All Greek activities on campus are overseen by the Office of Greek Life, though coordinator Melissa Krueger said that the office provides more recruitment help to the sororities. She said that the office usually helps the Panhellenic Council by arranging schedules and providing training and logistical support.
"The men," Krueger said, "are more on their own," although Greek Life does serve in a supporting role by directing interested students towards the membership chairs of the various fraternities.
The overall structure of the men's and women's recruitment is also different, Krueger said. Fraternities rush during the first few weeks of both the fall and spring semesters, but sororities only conduct formal recruitment in the spring. Sororities that have not reached their "ceiling" of 50 members, however, are allowed to recruit upperclassmen in the fall.
Fraternities
Fraternity rush typically takes place during the first two weeks of each semester, with most of the houses developing a calendar of events designed to introduce possible pledges to the various fraternities. After current brothers have had a chance to meet potential new members, they can invite them to become fraternity members by issuing them a bid. Once a potential member has been issued a bid, he can choose to accept it either right away or later on in his undergraduate career.
This year, bids were offered Monday night.
Phi Kappa Psi president and recruitment chair Mark Handloff said that his fraternity's event offerings ranged from athletic events like hockey games to philanthropic efforts like working at the Ronald McDonald House. Since the Phi Psi house is located on the extreme end of the south side of campus, Handloff said the brothers sometimes host events near the Northside dorms or on the Case Quad in order to encourage Northsiders to attend.
In general, spring rush success relies more on the pledges from the previous fall, who bring their friends to rush events, and less on meeting completely new people, Phi Kappa Theta president Norman Kittrell said.
Outgoing Zeta Psi president Kevin Wissner said that his fraternity ran spring rush without any calendar at all. "We meet unaffiliated men through classes, our new members from last semester, and … from orientation in the fall," he said.
With a smaller pool of possible pledges, some houses found their spring rush totals this week lower than the number of pledges they had signed in the fall.
"I personally felt our rush started off slowly," Wissner said, "but after the first few events we really turned it around and had a good turnout at the majority of our events."
"I think, in the whole, fraternity membership was down this year," Handloff said.
Tas Nadas, the vice president of recruitment for Delta Upsilon, said that the final number of bids given out by each fraternity depends on the type of brothers the members are looking for.
"We're actually very small," Nadas said. "We go more for quality than quantity. We do want people…, but we have a very strong emphasis on quality."
Sororities
Even though formal sorority recruitment starts a few weeks into the spring semester, awareness events are usually held during the fall semester. This year, the Panhellenic Council sponsored "Catching a Glimpse of Formal Recruitment" in December to introduce the process to non-Greek women on campus.
Christine Chambers, Panhel's vice president of membership, said that sorority recruitment is organized differently from fraternity rush and is "a little complicated."
Social events are carried out in four rounds of parties during two adjacent weekends, with each chapter providing a different party theme for each day, Chambers said. This year, the process began on Jan. 22.
During the first weekend, all potential new members attend parties given by each of the six sororities on campus. For the second weekend, current sisters begin narrowing down the invitation list and the potential members attend fewer parties.
"Our goal is to have girls meet Greek women from every chapter and maintain these relationships after formal recruitment, even if the girl does not join a sorority," Chambers said.
Panhel president Karen Ziarnowski said that she was enthusiastic about this year's results. "I think everything is going really well," she said. "I'm really happy with the spirit of the sororities."
After Sunday's fourth round of parties, each sorority will create a final ranking of new members they would like to initiate and potential pledges rank the sororities from which they would accept a bid. The lists will be compared by the Office of Greek Life and bids will be issued Monday.
So far, Chambers said that recruitment numbers for the campus sororities are a bit lower than those posted last spring.
"Last year there was an abnormally large number of women who went through formal recruitment," Chambers said, "so this year's numbers are lower." She estimated this spring's participation at around 85 or 90 women total.
Since formal recruitment is still ongoing, Chambers said interested women could still join the process this weekend. The third round of parties begins in Thwing at 11:30 a.m. tomorrow.
