Fraternity recruitment has seen a large increase in participation this year.
Associate Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life Ben Williams said more than 250 men had registered for recruitment this year.
“More than 200 [joined a house],” he said. “We are still calculating the total to include those men making the decision to join late Saturday and into Monday.”
Freshman pre-liberal arts and science major Armando Salinas said he was one of many students who went through fraternity recruitment.
“Most of my friends went through [recruitment] just to see how it went,” he said. “Mostly everybody on my floor went too.”
Williams said on average the houses received 14 to 15 new members, although the sizes varied.
“Each chapter goes into recruitment setting their own goal regarding how many new members they would like to attract,” he said. “These men must hold the shared values and principles that each chapter was founded on. The actual size of each new member class varies based on those goals.”
Dan Kahne, vice president of recruitment for Sigma Phi Epsilon said his house received more than the average amount of members.
“We saw a lot more guys,” Kahne said. “There were around 250 and usually there are only 170-200.”
Williams said the increased numbers demonstrated a notable difference.
“We are very pleased with the results and are excited about the increase in interest,” he said. “This interest is directly tied to the positive experience students have as members of the greek community.”
Salinas said he ended up joining Delta Tau Delta and is glad he went through recruitment.
“I had a lot of things in common with the people who rushed me,” he said. “I really got along with them and met people who really influenced me.”
Salinas said the Delts had 20-23 new members.
Kahne said Sig Ep had a different focus this year but generally things remained the same.
“We wore name tags and made sure guys remembered us and our names,” he said. “But what we did during the rounds stayed the same.”
He said the first round was spent bringing the recruits to the chapter house and providing food for them. During the second round they played paintball in the backyard of the house and recruitment was wrapped up in the third round with a pig roast.
Kahne also said he thought recruitment went well.
“It was extremely successful,” he said. “It was the biggest class we’ve had in years. I think it increased man power in the greek system.”
Williams said he agreed.
“The greek community has much to be proud of,” he said. “They had an outstanding formal recruitment process.”
Fraternity recruitment took place the previous two weekends and Sunday was Bid Day, but sorority recruitment will continue until Sept. 27.
