Encouraging Greek Life at Large campus

[PiLove]

I'm not sure what is considered large, campuswise. Our school has aout 30,000 students, practically all commuter people. The question I have is how to encourage more participation during rush, there were not even 100 girls last formal recruitment. And there are 7 NPC and 1 local so the new members are spread pretty thin. My chapter only has about 20 members, the more popular, 60. Semester is almost over and we have over the summer to brainstorm.

[chideltjen]

Originally posted by PiLove
I'm not sure what is considered large, campuswise. Our school has aout 30,000 students, practically all commuter people. The question I have is how to encourage more participation during rush, there were not even 100 girls last formal recruitment. And there are 7 NPC and 1 local so the new members are spread pretty thin. My chapter only has about 20 members, the more popular, 60. Semester is almost over and we have over the summer to brainstorm.

And the sad thing Linds... is that they got the grounds to start a greek row now. We need to get more people interested in Greek Life before investing our dues into houses. *sigh*

I heard this little rumor about sacramento too... apparently that since we are trying to become a more "elite" college, we are accepting less freshmen students than before. So that will REALLY screw with numbers.

Any suggestions will be helpful. We have a lot of girls going alum in the next couple semesters.

[dakareng]

Sounds like you need a major marketing push! This is one time to put aside the petty differences and work together on a "Go Greek" campaign. It will take strategizing and being able to articulate what you have to offer potential members. This isn't as easy when you don't offer the obvious (a place to live) but it isn't impossible. Do incoming freshmen hear about greeks when they hear about other student activities? Is there an orientation week were there is ANY push for student involvement? That gives you a way of getting your message out-- just make sure the message is what you want it to be.

[texas*princess]

One of the ways our Panhellenic Council is pushing Greek LIfe this year is through mailings to students who will be new students to the campus.

Panhellenic Council asked each chapter to ask their members for the names/addresses of one or two individuals that they know will be attending school here in the fall. Since each chapter here has around 70-75 members, that's a lot of names/addresses!

I don't know exactly what is going to be sent to the students but I think it will be something along the lines of going to UNT then going greek. I believe FR information will be sent along with that, so hopefully our FR numbers will go up!

Our school seems similiar to yours - we're a little over 30,000 students, 6 sororities, major commuter campus. Our formal recruitment numbers are generally around the 200 range, but some people drop out of rush, some don't get matched, and the average Fall classes are around 25-30.

Best of luck !!

[nauadpi]

My school has tried to push upperclassmen to actually go through recruitment... This helps to get up numbers and get noticed on campus... One of the ways we did this in the past was to send out greek life info to returning students before the end of the semester... In this was a discount for signing up for recruitment just because they were returning students... Other things we have tried on my campus are to go to Previews (my schools version of Orientation) and have every greek org set up a booth... At this is made greek life seem very over powering the the other groups there... and got a lot of people to sign up for recruitment...

The big thing is to work together... Also I know on my campus we have our Recruitment Councelors sit in front of the freshman res halls and the union to get them to sign up for recruitment.. On a communter campus, having in front of a central place where freshman will be can help too...

Oh and on a random note, I know an adpi from my chapter who is looking into grad school up at Sac and wants to help with greek life there... Now let us just hope she gets in...

[ADPiShannan]

I am with you on campus problems. I went to the University of Akron in Ohio. We have about 25,000 to 30,000 students go to school there, not including law school and the other campuses I think. We are HUGE commuter. I mean only 2000 live on campus last I heard. They are doing major changes to campus, like 1 billion worth of additons and rennovations so that is always a plus, but youd think with the campus size we haev, wed get more interested in greek life. We have 5 NPC chapters, as well as 12 frats, 6 of the Divine Nine and some Latino sororities. The fraternities actually are allowed to take as many members they want during recruitment, they have no formal recruitment and they vary majorally with numbers. I know of one house that is at 80 or more and one that is at like 12, so it definately varies.

As for sororities, we have a house total of 65. 3 are at 65, one is at 55, and one at 30 or so. So we definately can use improvement. Some things our Panhellenic has done is send mass freshman mailings. We were allowed to get with Student Orientation and get all of the incoming freshmans names and addresses and we sent mass mailings about sorority life. We actually made a book all about the houses and the process. We also had booths during their orientations on the campus talking to them about it, we advertised in the newspaper when school started and we advertised on the campus radio all the time. We had sign ups in big places where everyone is, we helped with freshman move in and attended all freshman events the weekend they moved in. We were out there all the time. Everyone wears letters all the time, flyers all over campus, I mean we have done so much, its like I dont know what else we could have done, except go to each of their houses to talk to them about it. Still we get about 300 who sign up, then when recruitment comes around, so many have forgotten they signed up they dont show. We get maybe 200, but thats stretching it. Fall 03 I was a Rho Chi and we had 150 go through. So I feel you pain. I want so bad to see my sorority soar and we make total, but I want to see all of Greek Life get stronger and stronger so we can add more chapters and we can get higher totals and we can really be known on campus.

I will say if you find a way to make it work, let me know so I can pass some info onto my Panhell, but until then, I keep my fingers crossed for your campus and for mine and hope somehow we can reach people and get them interested. Its so frustrating to see it go on and not know what else to do to make it right..... Keep trying though, sooner or later itll work.