Graphic by Sarah Moran/Old Gold & Black
Women’s fall recruitment is about to undergo a major overhaul. The university Panhellenic Council, the body which governs the operations of most of the sororities on campus, voted on Oct. 14 to end the fall informal recruitment process for sororities.
More than half of the women on this campus will be affected by this change, given that approximately 53 percent of women are members of sororities following formal recruitment.
Traditionally, Panhellenic sorority recruitment has been composed of the formal spring process and a smaller, more informal fall process. However, the Panhellenic Council hopes that the elimination of the fall process will lead to a decrease in withdrawals from the spring process.
“25 percent of women that went through recruitment last spring did not join [a sorority],” said Annie Carlson, associate director of student leadership and organizations and advisor to the Panhellenic Council. “It is hard to visualize that one in every four women doesn’t find that [recruitment] works for them. We hope that number goes down quite a bit this year.”
The council believes that the removal of the informal process as a fallback will cause women to be more open-minded about the sororities that continue to invite them back throughout the spring process.
“I found that after first semester a lot of freshmen girls had a handful of sororities in their mind that they wanted to join and that was it,” Abi Flynn, vice president of membership of the Panhellenic Council, said. “Then when they would come through recruitment in January things wouldn’t work out, and as a result of their tunnel vision they wouldn’t realize what sororities would actually suit them. [Then the girls] withdraw themselves as a result, even though there would still be sororities that want them back.”
The new format of the process also intends to equal out the sizes of the sororities by decreasing the number of withdrawals and increasing in bid acceptances.
“We need to change potential new members’ perceptions about having one or two chapters they want [to join] because one or two chapters can’t take everybody,” Carlson said. “We need everyone to come in with an open mind.”
However, the removal of the fall process does not mean that a woman who does not receive a bid in the spring will be unable to join a sorority until the following spring.
Sororities that have not reached the quota set by the Panhellenic Council will be allowed to participate in continuous open bidding.
“This means that girls that didn’t get a bid, the GPA or transfer will still have the option to join a sorority,” Flynn said. “This will apply to only about half the sororities on campus because the rest will be at the quota level and it will be a very informal process.”
This new system is more similar to the systems at universities such as Vanderbilt, Emory and University of Richmond.
“We are catching Wake Forest up to the national trends for how an informal process should look,” Carlson said.
Some girls feel that the transition is a necessary change to the system.
“I am excited about the changes Panhellenic has made in regards to fall recruitment,” senior Mary Stagmaier, vice president of recruitment for Kappa Delta, said. “This new system is in fact much simpler than the old system and will actually work much better. Sororities who fall below quota will have the opportunity to participate in continuous open bidding during the fall semester.”
Many girls, however, have mixed feelings about the change.
“I hate that girls will not have the opportunity to rush in the fall,” junior Emma Templeman said. “But ultimately the resources necessary to put on fall recruitment couldn’t be justified when such a small number of girls receive fall bids.”
Junior Allison Callahan added, “This change will be beneficial for the sororities, especially when it comes to evening out the size of the chapters. However, I hate that many girls won’t really have a second chance to really go for the sorority that they want.”
Other girls feel that this alteration to the system forces girls to rush before they may be ready to determine if they want to join a sorority.
“I personally do not believe that the Panhellenic Council should take away fall recruitment,” sophomore Mary Lindsay said. “Some people need an extra semester to figure out which organization fits them best, or just to adjust to school in general.”
Yet, those who pushed for the changes defend the new form of the system.
“This system will maintain the size of sororities completely and it will also take away the stigma from sophomores or older girls going through informal recruitment,” Flynn said. “The large majority [of sorority presidents and recruitment chairs] viewed it as a good plan and that’s why it passed in a vote of the Panhellenic Council.”