Fraternity recruitment at Keene State College was underway from Feb. 15 to 19.
During that time, KSC’s four fraternities held some of their recruitment events in the evening throughout the student center.
On Feb. 19, the fraternities held their Bid Day, an event where they hand out bids to their potential new members (PNM), in the Mabel Brown Room.
Sophomore Ethan Davis, vice president and director of recruitment for Delta Tau Delta (Delt), KSC’s newest fraternity, said that recruitment week is a “bittersweet moment, it’s a lot of work, but it’s a lot of work that pays off.” Davis said he loves to see people getting involved, as that is what helped him appreciate college life more.
Davis added that they could see themselves handing out a bunch of bids to PNMs, as he said he “see[s] a lot of great potential members coming through here.”
During recruitment week, Delt had some activities planned for the potential new members that came through. They had cornhole set up, as well as Super Smash Brothers for the Nintendo Switch. Davis mentioned that they were also building Legos.
Sigma Pi also had some activities set up for their recruitment period.
Sophomore Simon Trombley, director of recruitment for Sigma Pi, said on the first night, they had a general information night and then talked. Then, on the second night, they had a game night set up. PNMs and members of Sigma Pi were able to play games like Mario Kart and Super Smash Brothers, as well as wall ball.
Trombley added that they were hoping to bring in anywhere from 10 to 15 potential new members this semester. “So far it’s going pretty good. I’ve met a good amount of guys that are interested, few are interested in us too. It’s going both ways,” said Trombley.
Both Davis and Trombley mentioned how recruitment at KSC can be difficult because of its smaller campus size. Davis added some of the difficulties could be from the idea that the word “fraternity” comes with a lot of “baggage” mixed with the COVID-19 pandemic slowing down student involvement.
“The word fraternity scares off a lot of people, a lot of people who could be more than fitting for a lot of the fraternities,” said Davis. He said that a lot of what people see on social media and in movies is not really how it is here at KSC.
During Alpha Sigma Phi’s recruitment period, junior Jayden Taylor, the vice president of growth, said, “It’s been awesome, we’ve been able to talk to different guys and explain not only about our fraternity in general, but also about Greek life overall on campus.”
There seems to be a good turnout of potential new members, he said, adding that he recognized many of the people coming through.
Taylor said they did an information night on the first night, and on the second they did a game night as well and played Family Feud. For the third night, Alpha Sigma Phi planned to do the Hot Ones challenge, based on the YouTube show hosted by Sean Evans in which celebrities are interviewed while eating hot wings with various levels of spicy, hot sauces.
On the night before Bid Day, Taylor said they were going to do a Super Smash Brothers tournament.
For Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE), junior and president Nick Forrence said they wanted to get outside for recruitment week, citing how they are always inside.
However, they were able to project the Celtics game and talk and get to know everyone anyways as they were coming through.
“Turn-out could always be bigger, I think it’s going good so far though,” said Forrence.
He added that eight to 10 new members would be their goal for this semester.
Timothy Bruns can be contacted at
tbruns@kscequinox.com
