This article was originally published in the Welcome Home print issue of The Daily Utah Chronicle, originally in stands on August 25, 2024. It has not been updated and some information may be out of date.
From Aug. 12-17, the sorority recruitment process will take place at the University of Utah. This six-day process serves as an opportunity for students at the U to join “a community of over 900 Panhellenic sisters, who serve as sources of inspiration and become life-long friends,” the U Sorority Recruitment website states.
2024 Primary Recruitment
Greek life at the University of Utah consists of 13 fraternities and nine sororities with nearly 2,000 members, as reported by U Fraternity and Sorority Life.
The U’s Panhellenic Vice President of Recruitment Grace Emmons shared that recruitment begins with “chapter pride.” This is a two-day process in which potential new members (PNMs) meet all the sororities participating in recruitment. This is followed by the “investment” round, which spans another two days. Then, recruitment concludes with a “preference” round and “bid day.”
According to U Sorority and Fraternity Life, “recruitment is a formal process that is both values-based and a mutual selection.” Mutual selection means PNMs and sororities have a say in decision-making. The process focuses on finding PNMs who “uphold their organizational values and have similar ideals and beliefs.”
“There’s two main approaches to recruitment,” Sara Sharma, member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, said. “Some know exactly what sorority they want and if they don’t get it they drop from the whole process. Others go into it with a completely open mind.”
Creating a Community
“[Recruitment] has gotten a lot bigger, it’s gotten a lot more popular,” Emmons said. This year, more than 700 PNMs will be participating.
“Most people I have met who decided to go through recruitment were happy with their decision,” Maura Schaff, a potential new member and sophomore at the U said. “I wanted to go through it and see if I liked it.”
Emmons described the variety of organizations involved in Greek life, which different girls connect with for different reasons. These go beyond the six National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) sororities that have facilities on campus. There are also three non-NPC chapters at the U.
“You don’t just have to take the traditional route, which I think is really cool,” Emmons said.
Sharma explained how PNMs are sorted into groups of about 35 at the beginning of recruitment.
“You get really close with them. I still know the two girls who were next to me in line,” she said. “It’s fun to get to know everyone and make conversation.”
Schaff, reflecting on her freshman year, said, “If I did recruitment last year, I probably would have had an easier time transitioning. I feel like it does create a community for a bunch of people whether you’re out of state or just looking for a good community of girls.”
Sororities in the Media
“I went to a National Panhellenic Conference this past February, and talked to all these chapters from all different campuses,” Emmons said. “Everybody was kind of having a similar recurring problem, which is that there’s so much stigma around Greek life with social media, and it’s been really hard on recruitment numbers at a lot of schools.”
For Emmons, this stigma can cause frustration.
“The stereotypes about how different houses are is difficult to hear as somebody who’s been in the community for so long because I know all of these wonderful people across all these different chapters,” Emmons said. “I think it’s super hard to show people all of the good that happens within Greek life: all of the friendships, the philanthropy, the community it builds when there’s so much negativity in the media.”
Over 3,000 degrees have been awarded to fraternity and sorority members in the last 14 years, according to the Fraternity and Sorority life website. Additionally, Greek life at the U provides approximately 14,000 hours of community service and $450,000 to philanthropic causes each academic year.
“Every fraternity and sorority chapter is associated with a philanthropic cause,” Emmons said. “Every semester there’s a fundraising week where chapters will have tons of different events.”
Emmons said members of Greek life are also working to make these events more accessible and open to all of campus.
Getting Involved
Emmons explained that the best way to learn more about recruitment is on the U of U sororities Instagram. There, students can find a recruitment guidebook and regular updates on the process. Additional information about spring recruitment can be found on the U’s Fraternity and Sorority life website.
“If someone is interested in being a part of the community as a whole, I’m going to encourage it wholeheartedly,” Emmons said. “It’s cliche to say, but it really makes a big campus feel a lot smaller.”
