A record-high 293 female-identifying undergraduates participated in sorority recruitment this past weekend, said Emily Serrano ’17, president of the Panhellenic Council. Of these 293 potential new members, 188 received invitations to join one of the three sororities on campus — Alpha Chi Omega, Kappa Delta and Kappa Alpha Theta.
AXO and KD each gave out 63 bids — the maximum number of bids a sorority at Brown can extend — while Theta offered 62. Fifty-four, 63 and 61 girls accepted their offers from AXO, KD and Theta, respectively. In 2015, about 44 girls were offered bids to each house.
During recruitment, which took place Feb. 12-15, all three sororities hosted parties. During bid night Feb. 15, sororities offered potential new members invitations to join.
Registration for sorority recruitment opened Dec. 2, and the Panhellenic Council hosted information sessions in December, January and February to provide potential new members with information about the recruitment process, the houses and the philanthropic efforts in which each sorority is involved.
According to Serrano, increased interest in joining a sorority among female-identifying undergraduates has allowed for Greek life’s recent expansion, most visibly embodied by the emergence of KD three years ago.
Camila Lupi ’19, a new recruit to Theta, attributes her interest in joining Greek life to the strength of the support systems within the sorority network. “I wanted to join Greek life because I had met really cool people at Brown, but I still felt that I lacked a sense of community that I had in high school with my friends,” Lupi said. “I really wanted to have a group of friends that I could text if I was having a bad day or a place I could go for support.”
“The rush process was a lot less stressful than I imagined,” said Winnie Fan ’19. “It was a great way to meet and talk to people.”
The “mutual matching process” — the system by which students’ preferences are matched with sororities’ choices — has been computerized to maximize the chance that everyone receives her first choice, Serrano said.
Lupi was matched with Theta, her first choice. “When I went to the parties at Theta, I just immediately clicked with a lot of the girls. The conversations I had with them were on things that I was genuinely interested and passionate about,” she said.
