Sorority spring recruitment gained popularity this year because of an increase in the number of women allowed to be admitted into each chapter.
Last year, Panhellenic Council voted to either add another chapter to Bradley’s greek life or increase the total of women accepted into each chapter. Panhel chose to raise the total number of women for each chapter from 90 to 105.
Panhel Director of Recruitment Jade Peters said she thinks this is a great way to increase greek life’s accessibility.
“This gives students more opportunities to join sororities and makes for a more diverse environment in each chapter,” she said. “Also, there are more ways for girls to get involved in greek life and get into a chapter.”
She also said spring recruitment is a great time to get involved in a sorority if a student was not sure about joining one after attending fall recruitment.
“It’s an opportunity to bring in girls who were worried about the formality of fall recruitment, or girls who weren’t sure if greek life was right for them after fall recruitment and needed a semester to think it over,” Peters said.
The spring recruitment process is more relaxed than the fall, she said.
“It’s very cozy and there are laid-back activities like game nights or some sororities have casual Super Bowl parties,” Peters said.
However, women who join still need to go through the new member process, she said.
“I give the sororities more creative options compared to the formality of fall recruitment,” she said. “They do have a few limitations. Even though spring recruitment is more laid-back, we still want to make sure the girls don’t assure other girls they will get a bid without going through the pledge process.”
Also, spring recruitment differs from the fall because women are allowed to choose which chapters they want to visit, whereas during the fall they need to go to every chapter.
The Associate Director of Sorority and Fraternity Life Ben Williams said the decision to increase the total number of women in each chapter was reached through a Democratic process.
“There are delegates from each [sorority] chapter on the Panhellenic Council, and the delegate votes based on what the chapter had decided,” he said. “This ensures chapters have a say in the decisions made at council.”
He said he thinks the decision makes greek life more inclusive.
“It allows more women to share in the sorority experience, and I think that is important,” Williams said.
Director of Residential Living and Leadership Nathan Thomas said he thinks the additions to each chapter are a positive change.
“I think it’s great for everybody,” he said. “It diversifies the sororities and offers more opportunity to women on campus who want to be involved in greek life.”
Other than working on spring recruitment, Williams said sororities and fraternities focus on their philanthropies during the spring semester. The philanthropies the chapters participate in range from national to local organizations, such as Make-a-Wish Foundation, Peoria Area Food Bank and Habitat for Humanity.
“Outside of philanthropies, councils are preparing items for the upcoming fall semester, but the majority of spring is focused on the individual organizations and their philanthropy programs,” Williams said.