Advisor's Recruitment Story

[KDMafia]

Well we are less than a month from recruitment and I just wanted to give an update on the atmosphere on campus right now. Our panhellenic advisor has been concerned numbers were going to be low as she felt this class of incoming freshman were not as interested in greek life. As of the first date of turning in applications there are only 64 women signed up. More will probably trickle in but this is a slow start as we are looking at a quota of only about 12 if ALL of the girls stay in without dropping out which is very rare. Most of the time quota is around 15-16.

The chapter I advise is a little frustrated as they feel the recent drop in total by ten and the elimination of any type of organized fall recruitment may have helped diminish interest. We used to have a more organized fall recruitment with a week of informal events where upper class women could choose where to go but still with a set bid day. There was concern by our Panhellenic advisor that girls who saw this as freshman would get the idea that they could drop out of spring recruitment and join where they wanted in the fall. However, now, without any type of fall recruitment there is little PR for sororities until the month before recruitment. No other real big greek welcoming events, no PR in the newspaper.

The other concern is that a larger majority of this year's applicants are sophmores. With total so low and not many freshman to choose from many chapters are worried that their freshman class is going to be much smaller and with lower total will only be able to COB 1 or 2 more in the fall. There is a concern that this cycle will continue with all the upper classmen that change their mind in the fall but unable to get bids either not trying again or going through spring and creating the same situation.

The girls in the chapter are working hard to get freshman they know interested in recruitment but with finals week coming up most individuals are stuck in the library or finishing big projects and are already incredibly stressed out or are not having as much contact with lower classmen.

Hopefully the numbers will jump in this last week and they usually do dorm storming the day before recruitment to find girls willing to do it because their friends are or just because it's something to try but would never go out of their way to find an application and fill it out. Meanwhile my girls are working hard on being prepared for spring and I am brainstorming ways in the fall to help them get their name out more to increase PR and interest on campus.

Any suggestions on how to do that would be great!

[littleowl33]

Originally Posted by KDMafia

The chapter I advise is a little frustrated as they feel the recent drop in total by ten and the elimination of any type of organized fall recruitment may have helped diminish interest. We used to have a more organized fall recruitment with a week of informal events where upper class women could choose where to go but still with a set bid day. There was concern by our Panhellenic advisor that girls who saw this as freshman would get the idea that they could drop out of spring recruitment and join where they wanted in the fall. However, now, without any type of fall recruitment there is little PR for sororities until the month before recruitment. No other real big greek welcoming events, no PR in the newspaper.

Are there rules set by Panhellenic that prevent PR events in the fall? My campus has deferred recruitment and no big fall upprclassmen recruitment, but we rarely have trouble getting freshmen to sign up for recruitment (though I have no idea how many students are at your school, so I don't know how significant 64 is compared to the freshman class as a whole).

I think a lot of that is due to the HEAVY PR the groups do on campus. Panhellenic limits each group to a certain number of freshman-directed events per month, and has restrictions on what can be given out (essentially no gifts, only snack foods) and when they can be (each group hands in a schedule to Panhel and they make sure that no one is holding events at the same time). Other than that, they encourage everyone to be creative! Groups have decorated and eaten caramel apples, painted pumpkins for nursing home patients, done movie nights, baked cookies, etc. Lots of freshmen come out and get excited about Greek life.

Panhel holds a few group events where members of all sororities send temporarily disaffiliated reps, and we recently held a "recruitment drive" in the freshman cafeteria where members of all three groups brought their laptops and encouraged PNMs to register online. However, the main responsibility of PR is on the groups themselves, and the (mostly friendly) competition to have the best events or get the most girls interested has made everyone step up their game. I think it would be impossible for a freshman girl to get through her first semester here without seeing at least a few ads or events. It also helps dispel the rumors that come along with deferred recruitment - it's easy to disparage a group you've never met, but if you see the sisters at their events it's easier to see that so much of the stuf that gets circulated is untrue. Panhel's party line is, "Don't listen to what people say about a group, go to one of their (many) events and see for yourself!"

This might be a good thing to introduce on your campus, if you haven't already. It benefits all groups and keeps the idea of recruitment fresh in PNM's minds.

ETA: If Panhel does prohibit these events and doesn't seem to want to change, there are other ways to do PR. A few we've done are:
- Wearing letters to everything! We all have matching lettered tote bags that most of us use every day.
- Helping with freshman move-in (while wearing letters).
- Making sure to invite freshmen to other events you do, like big philanthropy events.
- Having sisters make a real effort to befriend and recruit freshmen. Having girls "see you around" isn't enough sometimes!