Tomorrow marks the start of this year’s Sorority Recruitment, a process that started all the way back in July when registration first opened up.

After women interested in sororities first signed up, they were given a recruitment counselor to guide them through the process.

These counselors can make or break a recruitment experience, said Megan Shudrowitz, the vice president of recruitment counselors.

“I instantly fell in love with all of my recruitment counselors, and it just made the experience so much more valuable and memorable because I had such great role-models to look up to,” Shudrowitz said of her own recruitment four years ago.

The process itself will start with an orientation Wednesday and registration ending at noon.

On Thursday, potential new members will go through a sisterhood round where they will spend time at each of the nine sororities.

Friday is the philanthropy round, where chapters focus on their philanthropic efforts in order to find women who share the same values and concerns.

Then on Saturday, each Sorority practices their own unique tradition, labeled generally as preference day.

Finally, Sunday is bid day, where potential new members will receive a bid from one of the nine sororities.

This process is meant for recruits to find a community of like-minded sisters to support them and to help them get involved on campus, while sororities are looking for girls who will compliment their current members and their overall mission.

Requirements for potential new members include a standard GPA of 2.5 or higher, along with things not so easily measured, such as leadership skills or other special requirements determined by the individual chapters.

The goal for this year was to have 115 potential new members; as of right now there are a little over 90.

Because of recent drops in enrollment, the number of potential new members has dropped significantly.

Just four years ago, recruitment was at 300 women. Despite this drop, the sororities and fraternities still make up 21 percent of Eastern’s campus population.

Nathan Wehr, the interim director of fraternity and sorority programs, said sororities are all about finding a lifelong community to be apart of.

Wehr said women who decide to go through recruitment are “looking for being a part of something bigger than themselves.”

Wehr, Shudrowitz and Dayton Ehrlich, a graduate assistant who works with the fraternity and sorority programs, all touched on the importance of academic success while being a part of a sorority or fraternity.

Ehrlich, who is also a graduate of a fraternity, said he originally wanted nothing to do with Greek life.

“I wanted to kinda go to college and get out as quick as possible,” Ehrlich said.

His friends convinced him to go to a recruitment event though and he said he fell in love.

“It was an amazing experience,” Enrlich said, crediting the academic level he felt motivated to keep as well as the job opportunities that he acquired.

Nicole Kuyper, president of the Panhellenic executive board, urges anyone considering Greek life to take a chance and go for it.

“Step outside of your comfort zone,” Kuyper said. “You never know what it could turn out to.”

Brooke Schwartz can be reached at 581-2812 or bsschwartz@eiu.edu