Greek recruitment kicked off Thursday evening with 382 girls signed up to participate.

The final event is Bid Day, which takes place today.

“This is when the women will receive their invitation to membership,” said Robyn Carr, interim director of Greek Life.

Sorority recruitment takes place in the chapter houses in Greek Court, but begins and ends in the Grand Ballroom of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

“We have women of every classification, but the largest concentration is first-year students,” Carr said.

Sorority recruitment consists of the nine National Panhellenic Conference member sororities at Eastern, which includes Alpha Gamma Delta, Alpha Phi, Alpha Sigma Alpha, Alpha Sigma Tau, Delta Delta Delta, Delta Zeta, Kappa Delta, Sigma Kappa and Sigma Sigma Sigma.

Recruitment process

Sorority recruitment consists of four events.

In round one, each recruit visits all nine chapters. This took place on Thursday and Friday.

“Round one is Eastern-themed and gives a basic overview to the women,” Carr said.

Round two took place Saturday, where participants could visit up to six of the chapters.

“The second round is focused on the philanthropy and service projects of each chapter,” Carr said.

The third round, called preference round, happened on Sunday. During this portion, the women visited up to three of the chapters.

“At this event, the chapters typically share an open ritual with the women to give them a little insight to that side of sorority life,” Carr said.

The fourth round is Bid Day, which culminates the recruitment process.

Each recruit completes a selection card with her preference and the chapters complete a preference list for the women who visited them.

“A computer program matches the two selections together,” Carr said.

Fraternity difference

The fraternities also host recruitment events and these events are open to any interested men.

“The format for men’s recruitment is a bit more casual, and a man can actually receive multiple bids from different chapters and then decide which, if any, he would like to accept,” Carr said.

Publicizing techniques

Recruitment is publicized early at Debut and open house days, fliers, e-mails, information tables and open information events. Recruitment was publicized online, in the Union, at the Student Recreation Center and at Carman.

Before recruitment begins, four different informational meetings were held on Aug. 23, Aug. 26, Sept. 1 and Sept. 2.

“Recruitment is how our organizations continue to sustain membership over time as people graduate,” Carr said.

Andrea Yadron, vice president of Recruitment and Retention from the Panhellenic Council, helped organize events and get new recruits signed up.

Yadron, along with Gamma Chis and recruitment counselors, train and counsel the new recruits. Yadron said the Gamma Chis are like salesmen.

Gamma Chis would ask students not wearing Greek letters what they knew about Greek life and would encourage them to join. Alicia Kouri, one of the Gamma Chis, said their process is to help sorority recruits.

“All of us (the Gamma Chis) are currently disaffiliated from our sororities as well,” she said.

Kouri said the reason for this is for the new recruits to feel as if they can talk to the Gamma Chis about any house and new recruits can feel free to express dislike for a house.

“If they are having any trouble deciding between houses, we help them decide,” Kouri said.

Heather Holm can be reached at 581-7942 or at haholm@eiu.edu.