Follow-up on IFC and WPA recruitment as of Sept. 15.
Interest in greek life at Ohio University among incoming freshmen has increased in recent years.
The 15 fraternities recruiting in the Interfraternity Council distributed their bids on Monday. Some candidates received multiple bids while others did not receive any. Of the 532 men who registered with the IFC, 488 bids were distributed and 284 men accepted bids. There are currently 825 women registered to join one of the nine Women’s Panhellenic Association sororities on Sept. 21.
Although some recruits have already and will continue to withdraw before receiving a bid, this year's recruits will still remain one of the largest in recent memory, said Kristen Kardas, assistant director for OU's greek life.
“We sent out postcards to incoming freshmen women which really helps (them) gain awareness since recruitment happens during the beginning of the year,” said senior Kate Schroeder, vice president of Public Relations for the WPA. “If you don't know about (recruitment) before you come to school, you miss out on the opportunity.”
IFC continued to work on creating a more structured recruitment process than years prior and helped fraternity members communicate more effectively to new recruits.
“This is only the third year (recruiting) in a more formal and structured setting,” said Dom Donofrio, a senior and vice president of recruitment for the IFC. “The IFC Values presentation was very good this year and there were no problems with the individual chapter events and we were very thorough in making sure there were no alcohol or drugs.”
Out of the 1,109 men accepted to greek life and women looking to join, at least 756 are first-year students. Because first-year students cannot live off-campus, fraternity and sorority houses will only have 353 new members for the 24 recognized chapter houses.
New greek life members interested in living in a fraternity or sorority house are able to do so as a sophomore if he or she meets several variables and after a chapter makes the final decision.
“Chapters work like residence housing and want to have all their beds filled so that they can cover operating budget and expenses,” said Hillary Stahl, advisor for the WPA.
Neither the National Panhellenic Council nor the Multicultural Greek Council have taken on new members yet this year, as their process differs greatly from the IFC and WPA. However, the NPHC, that serves the seven traditionally African-American organizations at OU, is hosting a “Meet the Greeks” event Sept. 25 at 8 p.m. in Walter Hall Room 145.
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