Cheers erupted on the Union patio Thursday afternoon as participants in the 2009 Fall Greek Recruitment finally opened their bids, revealing who had been recruited to which house.
About 220 women and close to 100 men signed up for this fall’s recruitment. The U boasts five sororities and six fraternies, all nationally recognized Greek houses. Women’s recruitment adopted a formal style this year, which means all participants had scheduled times to visit each house. The men choose to stay with an informal style of recruitment, allowing interested men to visit houses on their own schedules.
Jake O’Connor, fraternity recruitment chair, said they saw a high number of men come through recruitment this year and that they are holding a mini-recruitment next week to accommodate all the men who joined recruitment late in the week.
“We had 30 guys sign up in the middle of the week, which never happens,” he said.
O’Connor said this fall’s recruitment was one of the best the Greek Council has seen and the only issues that occurred were the number of late sign-ups.
Destiny Karrington, a freshman in political science, said she chose to participate in Rush to make friends and expose herself to a new experience.
“Everyone was very friendly and open about everything,” she said.
Karrington waited with close to 200 other anxious undergraduates to find out which house had extended them bids or offers to become a member of the house.
Mari Broadhead, panhellenic recruitment chair, said the Greek Council utilized more outside marketing to promote recruitment this year.
“Each house had a video and a profile on Youtube,” Broadhead said.
Every fall the Greek Council offers scholarships to students going through Rush. The only requirements are that scholarship candidates complete recruitment, but they are not obligated to join a house. Last year, the Council awarded 11 scholarships and this year it added another five to bring the total to 168212;eight female scholarships and eight male scholarships.
Each house sponsored a $500 scholarship, as did the alumni of former U chapter Tri Delta and the Northern Panhellinic Alumni Association, which works with greeks from the U and Utah State University.
“Everyone needs to get out of their box,” Karrington said. “Whether or not you finish recruitment, you’ll make friends with these people.”
Julian Gomez/The Daily Utah Chronicle