Sorority recruitment is infamous for being stressful, fun and occasionally heartbreaking. When I went through it, I not only remember all of the laughs I shared with the girls in my recruitment group, but I also remember the disappointment when a house I really liked dropped me.
My Pi Chis (recruitment counselors, basically) repeated that we should all “trust the process” and that it would place us where we belonged. Luckily for me, the process put me exactly where I was meant to be, but I can’t say the same for an unlucky few girls in my recruitment group.
What went wrong for them? Was it the sororities? Was it the girls? Or was it the week of recruitment and the process of which we were told to be so trusting? There are plenty of things that sorority recruitment does right, but there are definitely some things that we, as a panhellenic community, could afford to change. So, what needs to change and what doesn’t?
One of the biggest complaints I hear about recruitment is the process of getting dropped from a house. It’s often said that the houses don’t have enough time to get to know the girls they’re dropping considering that the rounds of recruitment are only between 20-45 minutes.
While this might be true, due to the thousands of girls that come through recruitment at every year, most schools don’t have the option of extending the round times. Alternatively, we could take a tip from the fraternity recruitment process, and begin having casual, alcohol-free, drop-in meet-and-greets in the form of oyster roasts, barbecues or simple snacks and conversation before the week of formal recruitment.
Not only would this give potential new members (PNMs) the chance to talk to active sorority members for more time in a less stressful environment, but it would also give the PNMs a chance to get an idea of the personality of each house.
Adding these casual, non-mandatory drop-ins would also be a great way of ensuring that the time period of recruitment could stay the same (about 4 days to one week). The setup of recruitment is definitely something that needs to be kept; it allows the PNMs to learn certain things about each house on certain days. For example, keeping discussion about each house’s philanthropy on one day allows the PNMs to only worry about and take notes on philanthropy, making it easier to compare different aspects of the houses.
Another common complaint is that the PNMs don’t get to learn enough about each house before she is expected to accept or reject her bid. One of the first things PNMs learn is that any talk about parties or alcohol during recruitment rounds is not allowed, to keep the focus on sisterhood and friendship.
Frankly, all this rule does, is mask a part of sorority life that tends to vary between each house. I’ve seen girls sign bid cards to houses that party and drink more or less than they are comfortable with due to the fact that the only information about each sorority’s party scene comes from rumors among the PNMs. The entire focus of every conversation shouldn’t center around drinking or partying because that is only a small fraction of college life, but having girls go into the party scene completely blind isn’t always the best option either.
Another great way for girls to get more information about the houses is something my school already has in place: a small brochure handed out at the beginning of recruitments with statistics and information about each house, including GPA, new member dues, house colors and other facts. Adding a short, ten-minute Q&A session after each round where the PNMs could ask any questions they have without worrying about intruding on their precious conversation time could also help in getting the PNMs as much information about each house as possible.
Recruitment isn’t perfect and probably never will be. Sorority life will always be something that can’t be explained, only experienced, and for this reason there will always be a few bumps along the way during recruitment and the few weeks afterwards.
However, helping potential new members make the most informed decision possible about which house they want and getting them the most face time possible with active members of each sorority is the best way to take a step towards smoothing out the process and making it a process PNMs feel comfortable trusting.
