Interfraternity Council’s (IFC) fall recruitment came to a close two weeks ago, with 372 potential new members accepting bids from the IFC chapters. This number was slightly smaller than last years’ 410 accepted bids.
This could be because fraternities Pi Kappa Alpha (PIKE) and Delta Sigma Phi (DSP) were removed from campus and Alpha Gamma Rho (AGR) was not able to recruit due to their suspension.
Each chapter gave out an average of 25 bids. Kappa Sigma had 38 bids accepted, the most out of all of the chapters.
IFC president and mechanical engineering senior Alex Campbell said this year’s rush process went well.
“We’re really happy and I think the chapters are happy too,” Campbell said. “This is (IFC Executive Board’s) first run on this side of it and we’ve learned a lot.”
However, IFC’s recruitment committee did see some issues with its current process.
There were 916 men who registered for fall recruitment, and attended IFC’s Rush Kickoff Barbecue on Dexter Lawn this year.
Computer engineering sophomore Dane Low, who is on IFC’s recruitment committee, said many potential new members were very timid when approaching the fraternities’ booths at the barbecue. Many students end up rushing the first house they talk to, Low said, and miss out on others as a result.
The committee’s goal for future rushes, starting with winter rush, is for each potential new member to be informed about each chapter before recruitment starts. That way, each potential new member has an idea of which houses they’d like to approach based on characteristics that appeal to them.
Vice President of Recruitment and agricultural and environmental plant sciences sophomore Sheldon Overton said that making these changes would help students find where they belong within greek life.
He said that IFC will provide pamphlets for potential new members before recruitment starts, filled with information about each chapter.
Low and Overton also agreed that the recruitment committee aims to unify the work of its members more this year. Instead of having 15 members broken up to do each other’s busy work, they hope to serve the greek community better as a unit.
“What we want, as a council, to share is that greek life is changing,” Overton said. “It’s not going to happen tomorrow, it may not even happen (at) the end of this year, but we’re going to work with what we have right now to lay a foundation for the future.”