The amount of recruitment participants increased this year for men by about 11 percent, but decreased for women by about 14 percent.
Interfraternity Council Director of Recruitment Chris DeRoo said online registration for men’s recruitment showed 267 men signed up, an increase from about 240 last year. He also said participant numbers were decreasing in past years, but had an upswing last year.
Tina Pizzuti, graduate assistant for the Lewis J. Burger Center for Student Leadership and Public Service and Fraternity and Sorority Life, said 312 girls signed up for recruitment this year, a decrease from last year’s 364. She said of the girls signed up this year, about 272 attended the first round.
Panhellenic Assistant Director of Recruitment Jade Peters said the number of women who signed up for recruitment is lower than last year, most likely because of the smaller freshmen class size.
Changes in the recruitment process could be the reason fraternity recruitment gained higher numbers.
“People are getting interested again because we’re trying to move toward a more informal recruitment,” he said. “We’ve been really lenient on what chapters can do as far as contacting new members, and I think that’s had a pretty big impact.”
DeRoo said IFC is hoping about 80 percent of men participating in recruitment follow through and join a chapter, and Peters said Panhel is estimating about 75 percent of women join.
“Greek life on Bradley’s campus is growing every year, and we hope that it will continue to increase in upcoming years,” Peters said.
Sophomore AEP major Karli Bartolucci, who is participating in recruitment this year, said she chose to go through the process to meet new people and learn about greek life.
“As a freshman, I had preconceived notions about sororities and fraternities,” she said. “You think about things like ‘Animal House,’ but [recruitment] gives you really good chances to learn about different aspects of houses.”
Bartolucci said because she transferred to Bradley second semester of her freshman year, she didn’t get the opportunity to participate in formal recruitment, but now that she is participating, she will probably complete the process and join a chapter.
And freshman AEP major Eddie Lapinski said he chose to participate in recruitment because his older sister, a member of a sorority at Bradley, told him the experience was worthwhile.
“My sister said a decent amount of the Bradley population was involved in greek life, and she said it was a great time,” he said. “I decided to check it out myself.”
Lapinski said he will definitely join a chapter at the end of recruitment.
“I’ve been really involved in everything since high school,” he said. “Being in a frat, you get to meet a great group of people who support you. These are the people who will be standing up in your wedding.”
