Everyone is coming back after summer break and the Greek Life recruitment process is starting back up again. For sorority members, this process is about welcoming new potential members and being in community.
Junior Emily Hussey, vice president of recruitment for the Panhellenic Council, said she helps in the overall planning of the recruitment process as a member of the governing body for sororities.
“I plan all the recruitment days and everything, and then the chapters plan what they do during recruitment,” Hussey said.
Hussey said she has been working with senior Brandon Valley, who is in charge of recruitment for the Interfraternity Council, to plan events for potential new members, including the Greek Life tabling at the Student Involvement Fair.
While they have made the change of allowing first-year students to be eligible for recruitment in their first semester, Hussey said all of the sorority recruitment programming will remain the same as previous years.
Hussey said interested students should consider Greek Life recruitment if they’re looking for community on campus.
“If you’re looking for a family on campus, it’s a really good opportunity to join Greek Life,” Hussey said. “Recruitment is all about the potential new members’ experience and we’re really excited to see new members come through and we just want to make sure everyone has a great time.”
Kappa Beta Gamma President Marissa Correia said the amount of students who join recruitment each year varies.
“We get 20 to 30 sign-ups a semester and are experiencing a jump because we’re including first-semester freshmen, but I don’t know the exact number,” Correia said. “It is somewhere around 30 [at] the most.”
Correia said the most important part of recruitment was making potential new members feel included.
“We want them here as bad as they want to be here, and we are focused on making it a positive experience for them, even if they don’t end up joining an organization we want them to stay positive about it,” Correia said.
Correia also spoke about the challenges that arise when recruitment occurs and the time being spent on recruitment, as well as the preparation that comes with the process.
“It definitely varies from organization to organization but I would say we spend a lot of time solely based on a team effort,” Correia said. “Some organizations have one head of recruitment, some have multiple but it’s one of our biggest events of the year so a lot of focus is geared towards there.”
“Personally I spent hours a day regarding recruitment,” Correia said. “The most difficult part is convincing people a Keene State sorority isn’t the same thing as Bama Rush, it’s not scary, it’s an entirely different vibe, we are not 100 different women screaming at you from a door way, the media has blown it into this crazy thing.”
The next Greek recruitment event is the Meet the Greeks event on September 19, according to Hussey, which will feature more tabling on the student center lawn.
Formal sorority recruitment will officially take place on October 2-6, Hussey said.
Phi Sigma Sigma and Delta Phi Epsilon sororities were not available for comment.
Tamy Jacques can be contacted at
tjacques@kscequinox.com
Nathan Hope can be contacted at
nhope@kscequinox.com
