Promoting Fraternity Recruitment

[Kevin]

How does IFC/your organization promote formal fraternity recruitment and Greek Life in general at your campus?

[Tink16]

Greek life is heavily promoted at the beginning of each semester by using chalk. Yes that's right. I think almost every organization chalks up the sidewalks all over campus with their letters, slogans, etc. The chalk messages start at residence halls and continue all throughtout the campus. I mean, its everywhere! I guess they chalk up everything at night since you wake up to the new chalk almost everyday. Actually every organization that wants to get a message across uses the chalk medium. Its a great and cheap way to advertise.

[OnePlus69Is70]

Doesn't. We don't have formal recruitment- it's a complete free-for-all, every chapter does whatever. It works for us. Generally, men don't bother to check out more than one chapter; if they're going to rush at all, they go somewhere they already know people. Every year there are some IFC events planned in conjuction with Panhel, but it's always just the women's groups who show up, never the men's.

Honestly, I like our system. The less I have to do with the other fraternities, the better. It saves me the time of actively disliking them.

[PotentialPledge]

There was not formal recruitment considering that we have ONE fraternity, but two more will be at UMASSD next semester PHIKap and TKE so im sure there will be some rules in place.

[Dianne]

Unfortunately at the College of Charleston, the sororities do a better job of talking up recruitment than the fraternities. At summer orientation for the freshmen, there's always a Greek Life meeting where the presidents of both IFC and Panhellenic speak, and kids can get a Greek Life booklet that has a page of info and pictures for every organization, as well as a recruitment application. Once it gets closer to fraternity rush (yes, the fraternities here still call it rush) IFC hangs up banners and flyers around campus to advertise and a lot of the fraternities will hang up individual banners. They are looking for ways to advertise better b/c numbers have been down the past couple of years. But IFC's rush chair is really good this year, so hopefully he'll be able to improve some stuff.

One thing I do like about IFC rush here is that on the first night, a "rho chi" of sorts takes the rushees in groups to every house. That way, they all get to see every fraternity, and then after that if they only want to go to one house for the rest of the week they can, or they can keep their options open. I know a lot of schools don't do that, and I think they do the rushees a diservice.

[Kevin]

I'm kind of surprised by some of those responses. You'd think IFC would be open to getting more men interested in Rush.

I would think if the school's Greek Life office and IFC/Panhel would actually do a little promoting of the system in general, we'd have not only more people rushing, but a better selection.

It'd sure be nice to break out of the 5-10% that most schools have.

[OnePlus69Is70]

I find our IFC to be mostly interested in bickering over how best to dodge university regs, and then waiting until the Greek advisor is out of the room to talk about the upcoming weekend. The semester I spent as IFC rep wasted 15 hours of my life.

Hopefully, it isn't the same in other places.

[CarolinaDG]

Kinda along the lines of what the C of C girl said...

Girls are fraternity rush. They are invited. They bring in guys. They rush the guys. I already have brought one guy to one fraternity, and am invited to another rush party with another fraternity. Basically, our job is to stand there and look pretty... a bit neandrothol, but it works. If a guy sees a bunch of hot girls standing around, then they think, "this is what this fraternity can bring to me."

Another thing that guys do here, which is kind of unfair in my eyes, but if they're all doing it, then, I guess it's pretty fair...
They pre-rush. They invite guys out to eat. They talk to friends to find guys to rush. They throw parties during the summer. I even know of one fraternity that was introducing a guy to their rush chair back in May. It's not something that sororities do, for fear of a big fine, but a lot of our fraternities do. It kind of makes the whole formal rush process obsolete, but there are always guys that they can't catch before rush starts.

At Michigan every fraternity puts up banners on their houses saying RUSH TKE, JOIN EX, PLEDGE BETA etc. Then there are all the open parties that they have during orientations, welcome week and the first 2 weeks of school before rush starts. There is also Festifall were all campus orgs can have a table set up talking about their group and a good majority of them do this (Winter Fest also). Sororities also so Festifall and Winter Fest, we have the open house informational, send out a video during the summer, chalk the campus.
All Greeks houses paint The Rock, put up flyers and participate in Greek Move-In, where members of greek houses help move in students who are going to live in the dorms.
*Controversial* Sororities also get themselves out by being "Door Whores" at Fraternity Rush parties. All you do is greet and sign the PMN members in and tell them to tell the girls they know about their org. Serenading is also done. AT UM greeks let themselves be known.

[justamom]

Hubby and I were talking about this to a Dad a couple of months ago. His son went through rush changed his mind changed his mind back, then chaged his mind again. I'm not sure how far he got in the process each time. His comment was that sorority rush was far better than the way the fraternities did it because it was more organized and the information was there in black and white. Even my daughter said there's jumping around from one fraternity to another.

In the past, some of the aums would have gatherings of PNMs at their homes. They would invite the young HS men they would like to see in their organization. When the Sigma Chis had their party, we (the wives) played hostess while our husbands "rushed" the young men. They also invited out of town actives and put them up in their homes. It was pretty succesful, but for some reason the ball was dropped and no one picked it back up for Sigma Chi.

Kappa Sig had something similar, but the man who opened his home moved and now the local chapter plans events. Since we have a lot of locals who are Kappa Sig at LSU, it's a pretty big event. Since they are starting with a clean slate now, I'm pretty sure that more events will be added fashioned like Sigma Chi and hosted by one of our town's "dignitaries".

KA cut everyone but one local who was an in-house legacy. So, they don't rush our area too much. My daughter said they use a similar format in New Orleans and the other larger cities.

Certain private schools seem to feed into certain fraternites so there's a lot of summer interaction.

We have Tiger Day when all the Seniors go to LSU. If they have a connectin, they spend some time with a fraternity. Don't really know what IFC does but it seems it's the members and the alums doing the footwork.

[justamom]

ktsnake, thought you migt be interested-


http://reveille.stumedia.lsu.edu/today/news/index.html

Greeks strive to raise standards
Fraternities seek ‘quality young men’ during event

The colorful tank tops are out. The sorority houses are full. This can mean only one thing — sorority Recruitment is over, and it is time for the Interfraternity Council to organize the men’s annual fall Recruitment.
This membership drive will follow the same procedure as in past years, but remains different from women’s Recruitment.
“Men’s Recruitment is much more laid back and less structured,” said Victor Felts, associate dean of students and Greek Affairs director. “It will be the same mutual selection process the women go through.”
However, this year many fraternities will be making an effort to beef up their standards.
“We are trying to get our numbers up,” said Jeremy Graham, Interfraternity Council’s Recruitment vice president. “We are also trying to get more quality young men.”
Many of the fraternities are raising their academic standards from a 2.25 minimum GPA to a 2.5, Graham said.
Sunday, the potential new members attended a convocation where members briefed them on the recruitment process.
“It’s a very exciting process,” said Chancellor Mark Emmert. “The Greek system adds vitality and energy to our campus. We look to the Greek system to be leaders that give back to their community.”
At noon Sunday, the active members of the fraternities began a process known as silence. During this time, the active members are not permitted to discuss their respective organizations.
Open house parties and selection processes dominate the rest of the week, which ends on Saturday with the potential member’s bid acceptance.
“It is a great way to meet people,” said Lee Hardee, a physics freshman. “It’s also a good way to get involved on campus.”

Contact Tim Basilica at basilicareveille@excite.com

[ksig600]

We have 2 reps from each IFC Chapter talk up fraternity life at freshman orientation. During the summer, each chapter recieves a complete list of all incoming freshman males and their info.