Six UR sororities increased their membership through the spring recruitment process held this weekend through Tuesday. The event is designed to showcase each sorority to prospective members and allow time for all of these groups to meet women considering membership.
“The recruitment went really well,” Director of Greek Affairs Monica Miranda said. 73 women were admitted into the six sororities taking part in the recruitment events.
Of the 12 sororities at UR, Alpha Phi, Delta Gamma, Gamma Phi Beta, Kappa Delta, Phi Sigma Sigma and Sigma Delta Tau are members of the Pan-Hellenic Association. Pan-hel is the national organization that mandates the recruitment process for member sororities.
The process began Friday evening with an event open to all UR women interested in sorority life. With the help of a recruitment councilor, the women spent time with each of the six groups that evening.
“They do it to make sure the potential new members have a chance to experience as many groups as possible,” Miranda said.
The recruitment councilors undergo training especially geared towards helping with the recruitment process. These members are selected by UR’s Pan-Hellenic Council and temporarily disaffiliate themselves from their sororities in order to remain unbiased while they help with recruitment.
As the weekend progressed, the process became more selective and prospective members narrowed down their top choices.
On Saturday, each sorority presented a slideshow highlighting their group’s activities and spent more time with interested attendees.
Philanthopy events were held on Sunday, where sisters and potential members were able to spend time together on service projects. For example, GFB made valentines for St. Judes Hospital.
Potential members listed their top choices on Monday and a Panhell committee, using this information and sororities’ preferences, chose which women would receive invitations for membership.
Culminating recruitment was the Calling Out ceremony Tuesday night at Zornow Athletic Center, where new members were announced and recruitment councilors rejoined their sisters.
By the time the ceremony was over, all counselors could be identified by large “Welcome Back” balloons.
At Calling Out sisters proudly displayed their affiliations with color-coded T-shirts. SDT wore red, FSS wore gray and DG sported white t-shirts with “I [heart] DG” prominently displayed.
Miranda announced new members and their sorority from the center of the gym to resounding cheers.
After this, the recruitment councilors ran to the center, and by way of announcement, showed the room their t-shirts which matched those worn by their sisters.
In this way, they publicly announced their reaffiliation with their groups. “It was awesome,” sophomore and new member Danielle Beyer said.Each new member had a different reason for choosing their sorority. “It was hard to decide, but it came down to a really good talk I had with a sister,” freshman Iman Criner said.
According to Miranda, the series of events was particularly successful this year, not only because of the large number of new members, but also because so many joined their first choice sorority, “We gave out a lot of bids, and lots of girls got their first choice.”
Levesque can be reached at clevesque@campustimes.org.
