After four days of sorority recruitment last week, 164 students joined the University’s four sorority houses, according to Assistant Director for Greek and Program House Engagement Megan Fox. Participation in recruitment hit a five-year high with 252 students attending the first round.
From Jan. 31 to Feb. 4, potential new members cycled through the four houses and talked to current members to get a sense of what life in Kappa Delta, Alpha Chi Omega, Kappa Alpha Theta and Delta Gamma is like. The University’s eight-member Panhellenic Council, which organizes recruitment for Greek housing, began planning the rush process in September by booking rooms, setting up the online registration system and creating the schedule, said Vice President of Recruitment Hailey Fulkerson ’19.
“It has to be scheduled out very specifically,” Fulkerson said. “Each party has to go exactly the same amount of time, and all the girls have to talk to exactly the same amount of people.”
Twenty-nine more students attended the first round of recruitment this year than in 2018. Of the 88 students who rushed this year but did not join a sorority, 98 percent dropped out of the process before bid day, Fox said.
DG took part in its first formal recruitment cycle this year after joining the University last spring. DG finished this year’s process with 45 new members, chapter president Haley Barthel ’20 wrote in an email to The Herald.
“We have had the support of our organization’s advisers, consultants and staff members to lead recruitment preparation workshops for our members to feel confident going into our first primary recruitment,” Barthel wrote.
Students who rushed attended up to three days of events at the sorority houses. Although the schedule is strictly set, Fulkerson described Brown’s recruitment process as very casual compared to those of other universities.
“You’re just trying to find the group that you vibe the best with, that you’re the most comfortable with,” she said. “I know at other schools it’s crazy intense. People get really upset if they don’t get invited back to houses, but here it’s pretty low-key.”
Diana Lee ’22, a new member of AXO, said she was interested in the recruitment process as a way to continue to meet new people.
“I really liked putting myself out there and meeting new people first semester, and second semester that kind of settled down,” she said. “Friend groups were also consolidating, so I wanted to meet an entirely new group of people.”
Kate Dario ’22, a new recruit to KD, said there were moments of stress in the process. “Every day after our schedules would come out, there would be a moment of craziness where some people were thrilled and some were devastated,” she said.
But overall, Dario said her conversations with KD members made her rush experience a positive one.
“People were interested in what your values were, what you were studying, what you were involved in on campus, and I thought that was a really positive thing,” she said.
But Olivia Williams ’22, who participated in recruitment through the third day but did not join a sorority, said she felt the process was more random and less personal.
“Don’t go into it with any expectations because it’s really not about you,” she said. “You can’t take the process personally — it gets so random and it’s really about luck of the draw.”
