At the beginning of fall and spring semesters, most fraternities and sororities take part in recruitment. West Texas A&M University, the recruitment process is a familiar process for the Greek system.
On campus, there are currently four sororities: Alpha Sigma Alpha, Chi Omega, Delta Zeta, and Zeta Tau Alpha. All four sororities belong to the National Panhellenic Conference. There are five fraternities on campus: Alpha Tau Omega, Kappa Alpha Order, Omega Delta Phi, Phi Delta Theta, and Sigma Nu. The five fraternities belong to the North-American Interfraternity Conference.
Recruitment is different for each sorority and fraternity. Each Greek organization has different standards for potential new members, can take different numbers of potential new members, and have different ways of recruiting.
“In the fall, there are more guys willing to rush because they are new to school and excited to become a part of something more,” Britt Foster, President of Sigma Nu said. “In the spring you really have to work to get potential new members, most students by that point have already decided if they want to go Greek. It’s our job to convince them that it is worth the time and effort to join while developing a strong brotherhood.”
Sigma Nu had 25 new members in the fall semester and three new members for the spring semester. Recruitment numbers seem to fall during the spring semester, even for the sororities.
“Usually more new members are recruited in the fall because in the spring, we recruit to make quota for our chapter,” Aileen Taylor, Zeta Tau Alpha member said, “WT has a cap on how many people any Greek organization can have, so we cannot recruit more than that. More people graduate in in the spring than in the fall, so there are more spots in the fall.”
The numbers show that the peak season for recruitment is the fall semester. There are many different approaches to the recruitment process, but a major difference is between fraternity and sorority recruitment.
“The biggest difference I see between fraternity and sorority rush is the structure. Sororities are very structured and focused on a certain number, while fraternities are laid back and focused more on the individual rushee,” Foster said.
During the fall semester, the Panhellenic conference does formal recruitment where everything is planned out for every sorority. In the spring, the sororities choose whether or not they want to go through spring recruitment, which is a more laid back recruitment with no set plans.
“Having everything planned definitely isn’t bad, but during the spring we have more of a chance to have our personalities show through,” Tessa Davis, recruitment chair for Alpha Sigma Alpha said. “We actually just host events and let the events be open to anyone.”
Although the organizations have to make more of an effort to recruit new members, they must enforce certain standards for each individual. If standards aren’t met by the individuals, they are terminated from the organization. In the case of the Kappa Alpha Order fraternity, the fraternity did not go through spring recruitment this semester.
“Although we obtained the highest GPA out of all the Greek fraternities, we did not feel we reached our standard,” Ben Young, Philanthropy Chair, Censor, and Interfraternity Council Rush Chariman, said. “We want to make sure that we have a strong foundation for new members to build themselves on.”
