Cal Poly’s Interfraternity Council (IFC) held its first ever potential new member meeting on Sunday.
In all previous recruitment years, IFC hosted a barbecue as the first introduction to fraternity life at Cal Poly. However, seeing that the barbecue wasn’t providing students with as much information as they wanted, IFC decided to host a potential new member meeting to help with this and to address questions.
“A lot of people have impressions about greek life, but don’t know how it happens,” IFC president Daniel Halprin said. “So we’re trying to make greek life more present and accessible so they can learn about it.”
For the first 20 minutes of the meeting, IFC Vice President of Recruitment Ryan Miller narrated a powerpoint presentation which touched on reasons to join greek life, myths and negative stereotypes, philanthropies, sports, probations, suspensions and disaffiliation.
According to one student, the meeting provided him with the necessary information he wanted to know prior to rushing.
“I was still really confused about (the recruitment process) so the questions they answered really helped a lot,” construction management freshman Otniel Gomez said.
On the other hand, Halprin, a business administration junior, said that since this was IFC’s first year choosing to host a potential new members meeting, there would be room for improvement in the future.
“It’s the first year we did this; we didn’t promote it or make it mandatory so the scale of the event will increase for next year,” Halprin said.
This year’s meeting brought in roughly 250 students, falling short of Halprin’s estimation of the 400-500 students who will rush during fall 2016. While Halprin’s vision for future meetings like these focused on numbers, some freshmen’s concerns regarded a need for more information.
“I think I would’ve liked statistics on each of the fraternities, like which has 130 members, which has the 45 member one, ’cause, like, right now they’re all these greek names that I don’t understand,” architecture freshman Foster Westover said. “Maybe instead of grouping them into 16 fraternities, focus on each one separately…”
A need for more in-depth information about each fraternity was a common concern among potential new members. Since Cal Poly has 16, and soon to be 17 fraternities, it can be difficult for potential new members to differentiate between them at the beginning of the year, according to architecture freshman Karl Heutchert.
“I’m kinda concerned, there’s like 17 fraternities, and to be able to research every one of them is a lot… maybe just, like, a brief overview, just like the views and what each fraternity is about and their style,” Heutchert said.
Even though some in attendance felt there was a lack of information pertaining to each individual fraternity, they said the presentation helped defy their misconceptions about greek life.
Specifically, the video “What it means to be a fraternity man,” which played at the end of the slideshow, helped to shape a new perspective of greek life for potential new members.
“I think that’s a really good example of what it’s like to grow up, especially me as a freshman, it’s a perfect example of what I’d like to be,” Gomez said.
The video was followed by a 30-minute Q&A session with five members of IFC’s executive board. While roughly 30 potential members drifted out of the room as the session proceeded, the majority of members stayed to listen and to ask questions about membership dues, the bid process and the differences regarding fall and winter recruitment.
“I found the question and answer more helpful and more in depth because you could find the powerpoint online easily,” Heutchert said.
After the Q-and-A session, potential new members left before being reminded about the first recruitment event, the barbeque which will take place Tuesday evening from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center plaza.