Sororities across Ball State University's campus kicked off fall recruitment yesterday. This year brings change to the once formal recruitment process.
"This year Ball State's sorority recruitment will be using a partially structured form of recruitment," vice president of public relations for Kappa Delta sorority, Kimberly Fox said.
Recruitment will last 1 1/2weeks instead of one week like in previous years, she said. The longer period will allow potential members to have more time to focus on school work and to be able to attend other school activities such as the football games, Fox said.
An extra round has been added to recruitment as well.
"The open house round is a new round that allows girls to freely visit the different sororities on campus at their own pace and allows them to choose how long they stay and talk to each individual sorority," Fox said.
The first round is the open house round. There were 11 different sororities for the women to walk through and ask questions about.
The second round is similar to the first, she said. In this round potential members learn more about the individual sorority's philanthropies.
The third round is more in depth. The women will get to experience what it is like to be a part of a sorority and sisterhood without being a member, she said.
Pan-Hellenic Council President Amanda Hendrix said the focus was different this year as well. Recruitment was changed for the best interest of the potential members and not necessarily to increase membership numbers, she said.
"It's not about the sorority schedule or what's best for the sisters, but what's best for the potential members," Hendrix said. Sororities were uniform in the recruitment process to keep everything on an even playing field, she said, so potential members are all on the same page and no one is misinformed or distracted.
"Every sorority kind of portrays themselves, but they try to keep it on a fair level," Hendrix said.
The number of potential members was greater than previous years, she said. Last year the sign ups were last minute. She said she did not think the potential for future sorority houses was the reason for the increase.
Fox said the increase in turnout might be because of the numerous meetings Ball State has had to prepare students for recruitment such as "Meet the Greeks."???????
Many girls want to join sororities to meet new people and have a chance to get involved, Fox said.
Hendrix said she agreed and most women on campus were looking to get involved and meet new people.
"It's a pretty big deal to find something they want to belong to," She said.
Many of the current sisters were keeping an open mind to the new recruitment process, she said and everyone was optimistic about how it would turn out.
Fox said many women who went through recruitment said the experience was exciting, fun and nerve-racking.
"It can be nerve-racking when you are meeting so many new people in such a short period of time," Fox said, "but although there are nerves, it is also an exciting and fun experience."
Hendrix said there would be a break from recruitment on Friday for the game and then things would resume on Saturday and Sunday. She said there would be a final break until Thursday.
Orientations6 p.m. Thursday at WB 144
5:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 5 at AC 114
12:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6 at Pruis Hall
Attending one sorority recruitment orientation is required to participate in sorority recruitment. Orientation introduces the new recruitment process to interested women.
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