In today's "Vanderbilt Hustler" (What the hell were they thinking when they named that newspaper?)
For women: it's over; for men: the fun has just begun
By Nick Hailey
January 20, 2004
The week-long process of formal sorority recruitment culminated on Sunday with large crowds outside each sorority house celebrating their newest members .
After receiving their invitations in Memorial Gym, the new Greek women walked along fraternity row to their respective houses as fraternity members stood back and watched.
This year’s recruitment was the most successful in recent years, said senior Jessie Smat, Panhellenic vice president of recruitment. Bid day brought excitement and relief to sorority actives as well as their new freshman sisters.
“It’s definitely a relief that the whole process is over, because obviously it was really stressful,” she said. “I think that the new process worked really well, and this year we had a higher retention and placement rate than in past years, so I’m really pleased and I know all the chapters are really excited.”
This year’s retention rate improved by two percent to 90 percent, which means that 90 percent of the 502 freshman women who began the process of recruitment ended up joining a sorority chapter on bid day, Smat said. 352 women received invitations from their first choice sororities, and nine out of 10 sorority chapters filled their quotas of 45. The quotas were set in order to place every freshman woman into a chapter.
“After hearing horror stories from upperclassmen and friends at other schools I was scared going into the week,” said freshman Sara Viggiano. “The process was pretty stressful, but now it’s all worth it because I see all my friends so excited to be in their new chapters and meeting all of their new sisters. It’s really exciting.”
While Sunday’s celebrations meant the end of the process of sorority recruitment, the eight week fraternity pledging process was only getting underway last Friday with bid night.
All the freshman men expecting to receive bids met Friday at Sarratt Cinema and were then released to go to their respective houses, said senior Andrew Myers, Interfraternity Council president. The houses either extended bids to the freshmen or turned them down.
“It’s often described as the best time you would never want to do again,” he said. “The new member education process is a time where the new members are taught the values and important aspects of brotherhood of each fraternity. It’s a lot of time and effort, but it’s all about gaining knowledge about each fraternity and paying your dues to earn your way into a house.”
The pledging process ends March 20.
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