Panhellenic Council begins winter recruitment
Rachel Tisdale
Issue date: 2/1/10 Section: Campus
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The Panhellenic Council is a group of 26 sororities on a national level. Sororities affected by these changes include Theta Phi Alpha and Phi Sigma Sigma and the soon to be new group, Sigma Sigma Sigma, which has plans to come to campus later this semester.
“With the addition of a third sorority coming, formal, fully structured recruitment was needed for full participation,” Sara Frees, director of Greek Life, said.
“Last year all the organizations were allowed to do [recruitment] and they did it at their own discretion and so you’d look at the first month of each semester and that’s when you’d see a lot of stuff going on for [recruitment],” Keith Hazel, Greek Council president, said.
Girls that are interested in joining one of these sororities will find that recruitment is now more formal. In order to be a part of recruitment, any female student interested in joining a Panhellenic sorority is required to sign up. The first round, which included recruitment tables, was set up Jan. 26 and 27 in the UCEN to provide information to female students interested in joining.
“It’s going to be a very different process, but it’s going to be organized, it’s going to be fun and it’s going to be a learning experience for everybody. Lots of excitement coming,” Frees said.
“I’m excited to be on the other side of [recruitment] and see what goes into all the events. I’m excited to meet new girls. I tell them that being Greek in general is really cool. You really don’t know what you’re missing,” Mary Bickes, a freshman theatre major and member of Phi Sigma Sigma, said.
The winter recruitment kickoff event called the Panhellenic Premiere was on Jan. 28, from 6-8 p.m. in Clint’s Café.
The recruitment counselors will consist of one or two girls from each of the sororities and will totally disaffiliate themselves from their sorority for the duration of recruitment in order to help council those girls who are looking to join a sorority. Counselors will remain neutral when talking to potential new sorority members. They will also be attending every event.
The second wave of events will take place on Feb. 3 and 4. The third wave of recruitment will happen on Feb. 8 and 9. These will be followed by Preference Parties on Feb. 12. And finally on Feb. 15, bids will be handed out with a party later that evening to celebrate the accepting of bids.
One purpose of having a more structured recruitment is so that none of the sorority events will overlap. That way, if potential members wish to attend events for different sororities, they do not have to choose between attending events hosted on the same night. Potential members are also required to attend a minimum of any three out of the five events for both sororities in order to receive a bid.
Sigma Sigma Sigma will be arriving on campus later this semester, but was able to participate in the first wave of recruitment. After that, since they are not officially a sorority, Sigma Sigma Sigma will drop out and hold off on recruitment until they are colonized in mid-February. They will be holding their own recruitment following their colonization.
“Having any other organizations on campus is a good thing. It’s great to see Greek Life thriving on this campus. It’s great to see Greek Life expanding and they’re a group of great girls,” Hazel said.
Any girl wishing to join them may participate in recruitment. However, if a potential member receives bids from either Theta Phi Alpha or Phi Sigma Sigma but turns it down, they are not allowed to accept a bid from any sorority for a full calendar year.
“If you get a bid and you don’t want to go to that sorority, you’re out of joining until that following year. But if you don’t get a bid from either [Theta Phi Alpha or Phi Sigma Sigma] you can still look at Sigma Sigma Sigma or look in the fall again,” Frees said.
Rachel can be reached at ratisdal@umflint.edu.
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