Sororities on NC State’s campus and all over the country are overhauling their recruitment process following a decision from the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) in October 2015, which mandates that all college Panhellenic organizations implement a “no frills” approach to attracting new members.
Executive Director for NPC Dani Weatherford said that this ruling was not in response to any specific incident and that the voting delegates each made their decisions for their own reasons.
“We want to make sure that our recruitment policy reflects the values that our organizations hold,” Weatherford said. “Instead of spending time watching videos or a skit, we really want them to have conversations about being a member of a sorority.”
Traditions such as skits and videos promoting specific chapters during recruitment week have been eliminated, a cap has been placed on recruitment expenses including donations of goods from alumni, decorations must be kept to a minimum and confined to interior spaces used for recruitment, and chapters must choose recruitment attire that reduces the financial burden on new members and avoids “costuming.”
Instead, sorority women have been instructed to focus on the values of their organizations in order to attract new members.
The recruitment budget is now capped at $1,000. Some flexibility is built in to account for basic accommodations such as table and chair rentals, but the elaborate decorations that typified previous recruitment weeks have been confined to “brag boards” where sororities can promote the accomplishments of their members or specific events, according to Shelly Dobek, director of the Department of Fraternity and Sorority Life at NC State.
Values-based change has been coming since the early ‘90s, but this legislation is a sign that more needs to be done, according to Dobek.
“[The NPC] came out and said ‘we really mean it,’” Dobek said.
These policy changes were tested in pilot programs prior to being voted on by the NPC. The Universities of Georgia, Illinois and Tennessee each implemented values-based recruitment and eliminated skits over a two-year span.
Case studies on these pilot programs determined that personal interactions with members were the driving force behind the decisions made by prospective members, not skits or other forms of prepared entertainment.
Associate Director of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs at the University of Illinois G. Andrew Hohn, reported that more than 90 percent of the university’s new members in Panhellenic sororities ranked personal conversations as a “very important element” in deciding on a sorority to join. That same survey showed that videos and skits were ranked as “very important” by only 20 percent of respondents, and decorations and songs were “very important” to only 10 percent of members.
For Dobek, this change is about altering the perception of social organizations from “social event organizations” to a place to learn social skills. Dobek said that this will allow members to live a fuller life than women in past centuries when it was considered a scientific fact that women receiving education was bad for their health.
“Hopefully we’re attracting the right women to the process, women who are interested in those things and not women who are interested in some of the stereotypes that might go along with that,” Dobek said. “We want people who believe what we believe, not people who want what we have.”
Dobek said that recruitment pitches for sororities tend to highlight the “how” and the “what” of what sororities do, such as “we volunteer” and “we promote academic success,” but often leave the question of “why” unanswered.
“What starts to differentiate us as organizations isn’t how we do [those things] but ultimately where we want to have great conversations is around why we do [them],” Dobek said. “So when we stop talking about the things that don’t matter like clapping and singing and doing skits, and we start having conversations about empowering women to reach their potential, hopefully we’re attracting the right women to the process.”
Dobek said that when she arrived at NC State 15 years ago, sorority houses were decorated top to bottom. It wasn’t uncommon for a budget that covered the serving of drinks to be interpreted as allowing for “fancy milkshakes with paper straws.”
“Now we’re serving water,” Dobek said. “The idea is that if we put our values forward first, then people will be more likely to align their own personal values with those organization values and we’ll have a more productive membership experience.”
The NPC, which is made up of 26 national and international sororities, also added legislation which further defined eligibility for member chapters. Per a unanimous vote, a woman seeking to pledge with an NPC sorority must do so only during fall or spring semesters and be regularly matriculated according to her respective university’s definition.
In place of the traditional recruitment week, each day has been given a specific theme: Get Involved, Live and Learn, Make A Difference, Preference Night and finally, Bid Day.
Laini English, chapter president of Delta Gamma and a junior studying biological sciences, said in an email that this gives the sororities the opportunity to talk about the good things that they do.
“This gives us an entire day to express our love for our philanthropy, what types of activities we participate in and why we do it,” English said. “The change in recruitment policies has had no negative effects on our budget for philanthropic activities.”
Meredith Mason, president of the Panhellenic Association at NC State and a senior studying elementary education, said in email that she doesn’t expect these changes to slow down sorority recruitment.
“I do believe these changes will help women see what our community is passionate about, where we want to make a difference and the sisterhood we share, which will lead to more women who make a commitment to be a part of this community,” Mason said.
