Council votes down spring rush

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By Hannah Ockerman

Rush week has traditionally been held in the Fall semester of the academic year, and the UK Panhellenic Council recently decided it would stay that way.
After some questions were raised about changing the Greek recruitment period to the Spring semester, the council unanimously ruled to keep recruitment in the fall, said Panhellenic Council President Julie Meador.
Meador said the UK Student Affairs Administration asked the Panhellenic Council to consider moving sorority recruitment two or three weeks into the Fall semester. There was also discussion of moving to or adding a formal spring recruitment week. Sorority recruitment is currently the week before school starts in the fall.

The Panhellenic Council talked to other campuses about when and how they recruit, Meador said. Council members visited Purdue University to see how its Greek system recruited.
“Purdue is one of UK’s benchmarks,” said Susan West, director of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs. “Their Greek community is similar to UK’s.”
Meador said after the council visited Purdue, former UK Vice President of Student Affairs Pat Terrell determined that UK did not need to change the sorority recruitment period. Terrell thought a change would be detrimental to the current recruitment system, Meador said.
West said she agreed with Terrell’s conclusion about changing the current system.
“There would be conflict with academics and other UK community events such as football games, women’s sports and leadership summits,” West said. “Purdue had many scheduling conflicts for both their recruiters and potential members. Recruiters missed class to prepare for the recruitment events and got behind in their studies.”
Members of the Purdue Panhellenic Council could not be reached for comment.
Centre College is one school that emphasizes waiting until later in the school year to recruit for Greek organizations. Centre has Greek recruitment the week after Centre Term, a three-week term in January. Students must be in at least their second semester to be eligible for recruitment.
Allowing students to develop relationships before joining a sorority is a benefit of later recruitment, said Emily Perrin, vice president of recruitment for Centre’s Panhellenic Council.
“You have the opportunity to get to know people on campus, so when you walk into those houses (during recruitment) you see women you know,” Perrin said. “Choosing a sorority isn’t a gut decision based on the few nights you spend in that house; it’s based on the women you know.”
By allowing students to finish one semester before they join a sorority, Perrin said current members can look at that student’s grade point average and determine if they are ready for the commitment of joining an extracurricular like Greek life.
“When you enter Greek life (at Centre) you are entering on college grades, not high school grades,” she said. “We can make sure they are ready scholastically for the time commitment.”
Vanderbilt University and DePauw University both have spring recruitment for their Greek systems, but West said delaying recruitment means delaying the pledging period, which provides many new students opportunities to get know a campus better.
“Being able to join a sorority early gives the new students instant connections which help with their adjustment to college,” she said. “It makes sense to have the valuable connections as soon as possible before the stress of classes begins.”
Some sorority members thought connections could be made just as easily in the spring. Christina Criollo, a merchandising and textiles senior, said she thought recruits might be more likely to stay in the Greek system with spring recruitment.
“I think changing recruitment from the fall to the spring would be a really great idea,” Criollo said. “Moving into the dorms, starting classes and making new friends is a lot to handle without adding the pressure of joining a sorority.
“Being in a sorority was one of the best decisions I made … but I think more girls would not only decide to go through recruitment, but they’d also stay with the sorority they chose, and the drop rates would go down,” she said.
Fraternities at UK hold spring recruitment, but that is because the recruitment process is a lot less formal for Greek men, West said.
“(Fraternity recruitment) is not as formalized,” she said. “Panhellenic takes more time. The men don’t spend as much time. It’s just a different process.”
Carissa Dowden, a mechanical engineering senior, said she thought spring recruitment would be distracting for new members.
“I like recruitment taking place a week before school starts because schoolwork and classes are number one priority for me, and my sorority also values high academic achievement in its members,” she said. “Holding formal recruitment events during school could provide a distraction for members and potential members.”

Staff writer Katie Saltz contributed
to this story