U of Illinois: Panhellenic addresses recruitment misconceptions

[TxAPhi]

Panhellenic addresses recruitment misconceptions
By Gina Siemplenski
Published: Friday, April 29, 2005

The University sororities saw the greatest number of applicants in a decade in fall 2004, but also saw a 43 percent increase in the number of people who withdrew their bid - marking the highest number of dropouts in a decade.

According to the 2004 Formal Panhellenic Recruitment Statistics, 1,298 women registered to be recruited by sororities in fall of 2004, an 11.6 percent increase from 1,163 applicants in Fall 2003. But the number of applicants who dropped out of the recruitment process also increased from 244 in fall 2003 to 349 in fall 2004.

Dan Bureau, assistant dean of Greek Affairs, said that two reasons account for these statistics: increase in applications and the New Release Figure System, a recruiting program that was implemented for the first time in fall 2004.

"More people came through recruitment (in 2004)," he said. "People have the expectation that they only wanted to be in one chapter, and chapters were not told to have more meaningful conversations with potential new members (PNMs) with the change in the system."

The old system did not allow every house to allow back the same number of people at each invite.

"In the old system, chapters who were most successful at rush got to invite back some people at first round who were more borderline," said Bureau. "However, higher-ranking sororities were also taking away potential recruitment for other sororities by not allowing the less popular sororities to invite back as many girls as they could."

Bureau said the statistics are misleading, pointing out that 15 out of 19 chapters made their pledge class quota, which is about 50 members. He also said the use of the New Release Figure System provides more opportunities for chapters and PNMs; because it requires chapters to cut more applicants earlier in the recruiting process than before, applicants are given a second chance to look at a house they might not have considered at first.

"The system allowed for more realistic options for potential members to maximize their options and allowed more chapters to recruit until quota," Bureau said.


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