Formal recruitment changes

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Reems Landreth

Fall 2018 recruitment marks the first time in recent history that sorority recruitment will be held off campus at the RP Funding Center.

Sorority recruitment has also been moved from a Monday start, as in years past, to a Friday start with a Kick-off event on Thursday, Sept. 20. Formal recruitment will take place from Sept. 21 to 23 ending with a Monday night Bid Day. This change was implemented to help reduce conflicts with academics.

Along with the many changes facing sorority recruitment this semester is the addition of a Financial Transparency sheet that each student will receive during the first night of recruitment. According to Panhellenic President Alyssa Rinehart, chapters will be able to share detailed financial information with potential new members during the first round of recruitment, as each women will leave with a single sheet of paper containing the chapter’s dues and fees.

“Our participation in the program will allow our community to be more open about talking about finances, increase understanding of sorority expenses, and increase potential members’ knowledge and comfort about the financial obligations of a sorority,” Rinehart said via email.

Rinehart also believes that it will help new member retention and help to show the values of the sororities on campus.

Fraternity recruitment has not changed from previous years, as recruitment will take place during the week of September 17. The Interfraternal Council will open the week with a kick-off event on Sunday, Sept. 16 before five days of recruitment culminates in a Saturday morning Bid Day.

IFC Vice President of Recruitment Bryce Gressani feels that “it’s going about as well as could be expected.”

“We’re all pretty optimistic about recruitment considering that there have been a lot of changes in the past couple of months in the administration for Greek life. We are concerned with the ratio of men to women, but I feel like we’re able to sign up a good amount for recruitment and the freshmen men we do have seem engaged in the idea of Greek life,” IFC President Andrew Burnham said.

Sorority Bid Day 2017

Last April saw a substantial change to the sorority recruitment process when it was announced by then Director of Student Involvement Brittany Donatelli that formal recruitment for the 2019-2020 academic year would be moved to the spring semester.

According to current Director of Student Involvement, Allison Manning, the change to spring will allow first year students to become acclimated to campus, establish themselves academically, and find their place involvement-wise with other campus organizations.

“[Spring recruitment] also allows the fraternities and sororities to get to know the individuals for a lot longer than a couple of weeks before they are making decisions
going through recruitment,” Manning said.

This change looks to be in anticipation of the new generation that is entering higher education. The recruitment changes are also a way for Greek life at Florida Southern to show that it is different from how Greek life is portrayed in the media.

“I think it allows us more time to talk about those differences and what makes Greek life so great here at Florida Southern and to share that story over the whole first semester,” Manning said.

While the school is still not sure how informal recruitment will run next fall, Manning believes that fraternities will still have a form of a recruitment week during the fall while sororities will be able to give out bids if their chapter is below the average size of chapters on campus. Manning says this is to give all sororities an equal playing field coming into formal recruitment.

 

Informal bids will be available to both men and women next fall who are upperclassmen and/or transfer students who may not have gone through recruitment their first year.

“We hope that giving freshmen time to establish roots on campus and figure out who they mesh with the best will allow for Greek orgs to be stronger in the long run,” said Burnham on the transition to Spring recruitment.

Panhellenic Vice President of Judicial Affairs, Holly Roman, feels that recruitment will become “more values-based because students will get to know the people within the organizations over a greater period of time rather than potentially focusing on the superficial aspects seen over the first month.”

Any questions regarding Greek events ma y be addressed to Allison Manning at amanning@flsouthern.edu, Panhellenic President Alyssa Rinehart at fscpanpresident@gmail.com or to IFC President Andrew Burnham at fscifcpresident@gmail.com.

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