Apologies for the long post.
A few days ago I posted an excerpt of an email that I sent to the IU Board of Trustees sharing my disappointment with the IU sorority recruitment process. I thought the forum would be interested in the BOD's reply (excerpt below). Using 1600 as the number of women who made the grade cut, the placement rate for this year is 63%. Still far off the 90% placement stat I've heard about at other schools. So, my advice to prospective IU female students - if sorority life is something you might desire BEWARE. My daughter is a sophomore and has been disappointed twice. I'm encouraging her to explore Delta Phi Epsilon but with reservation - I'm not sure she can take a 3rd rejection.
My daughter did everything advised on this forum - campus involvement (floor philanthropy director, IU Student Foundation member, Conduct Board member), established good friendships with sorority members, has a sky high GPA and yet did not receive a bid even though she was invited to two for the final round. I am very happy for the girls who received bids and my daughter will survive this. I am sharing this post as a warning to prospective IU moms because I wish I knew then what I know now. My daughter is getting a great education at IU but she had options to go to other great schools where the sorority recruitment process would likely have turned out differently.
Increased interest in joining the Indiana University sorority community is a positive moment to celebrate, but not without growing pains. The 2014 formal recruitment process has placed a record number of women (1011) in 21 chapters. However, the number of women wanting to join is outpacing the number of sororities we have here at Indiana University.
To help mitigate this challenge the undergraduate leadership of the PanHellenic Association (PHA) has added a 3 new sorority chapters in the last four years. It is their hope that this will increase the opportunity for all women interested in joining a chapter. The newest sorority, Delta Phi Epsilon, will be starting their recruitment on Wednesday, January 21, 2014. Interested women may contact DPE at www.bedphie.com. PHA will also be having conversations soon about the possibility of adding yet another sorority to campus in the near future.
IU is working towards your suggestion of increasing opportunities for women to participate in Greek life. As PHA does every year, they will continue to assess the outcomes of the 2014 recruitment program in order to improve the process.