Recruitment brings a lot more to a Greek organization than just new members.
Lauren Mcquistion, Zeta Tau Alpha sorority president, said spring informal recruitment brings her chapter together as they strive to increase their membership with interesting, fabulous and fun girls.
Mcquistion said her chapter does not look for specific qualities in potential members.
She said her chapter focuses on each girl on an individual basis.
“If we are all the same, it would kind of be boring,” Mcquiston said.
She said spring informal recruitment for her chapter is more laid back than fall formal recruitment, because fall is more structured.
Mcquiston said they still have rules to follow the for spring recruitment, but it is not as structured as the fall.
She said she thinks that spring informal recruitment provides her chapter a better opportunity to get to know the potential new members than in the fall.
“It gives you a chance to meet more girls and talk to them a bit longer,” she said.
Mcquiston credits this to a smaller number of girls participating in informal recruitment, than in the fall formal recruitment semester.
She said during the fall semester there are hundreds of girls going through recruitment, whereas in the spring there are about 20 or 30.
Zeta Tau Alpha welcomed 81 new members during the fall formal recruitment, Mcquiston said. In spring 2003, the sorority welcomed 24 new members.
According to the Greek Affairs Web site, recruitment is a mutual process in which greek organizations choose their potential members and potential members choose their organization of their choice.
Mcquiston said she could not tell how many bids her chapter has given out this spring because informal recruitment has not ended.
Zeta Tau Alpha is not the only campus Greek organization participating in spring recruitments, though.
Abbey Lambert, the Panhellenic Council’s executive committee’s vice president of recruitment, said 12 bids were given out to girls last Thursday by participating chapters.
Lambert said Panhellenic Council chapters are eligible to participate in spring informal recruitment if they are below the average chapter size.
Average chapter size is the average of the number of members in each Panhellenic Council chapter, she said. Sororities above average chapter size are not allowed to participate in spring informal recruitment.
Victor Felts, assistant dean of students and director of Greek Affairs, said spring informal recruitment is an open period for sororities and fraternities.
Felts said the list of fraternities participating in spring recruitment is longer than the list of those which are not.
He said spring informal recruitment is not as formal as the fall recruitment period and each chapter can participate on its own.
Felts said fall recruitment will last a week.
He said the Panhellenic Council and the National Pan-Hellenic Council actively participate in the recruitment of new students by sending them information about Greek organizations.
The Panhellenic Council is the governing body of all sororities at the University and it is composed of two delegates from each member sorority on campus.
The Panhellenic Council makes decisions about issues relating to the sorority chapters and the recruitment process.
According to the Greek Affairs Web site, the National Pan-Hellenic Council, Inc. is comprised of and governs nine historically Black National Greek sororities and fraternities.
The intake process for NPHC organizations is different from those used by the Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Council.
The Interfraternity Council is the self-governing body of all University fraternities.
Jerrel Wade, assistant director for Greek Affairs, said the main difference of the recruitment and intake process is that each NPHC chapter can decide when they want to have intake of their own.
Wade said chapters are not openly monitored and governed by the NPHC like the Panhellenic Council sororities and IFC fraternities.
The NPHC also has open recruitment year-round, he said.
Informal recruitment for sororities lasts from Feb. 1-19 under the office of Greek Affairs, Lambert said. This means if they are going to extend a bid between the 1st and 19th, they must do it through the Office of Greek Affairs.
She said continuous open bidding, a bid outside of informal recruitment, starts after Feb. 19, and the chapters do not have to go through the Office of Greek Affairs to extend bids to new members.