A record-breaking number of freshmen are flocking to become a part of Greek Life, which Greek veterans say will enable the entire system to expand.
“Greek life has been steadily on the rise for the past few years,” said Kate Harrison, the Greek director of admissions for recruitment. “We’re hoping to expand. It’s very exciting.”
The wider-than-usual interest in joining the Greek system also reflects the increased general freshman enrollment at the University this year.
A staggering 618 girls applied to join a sorority this year, compared to the roughly 450 young women who applied just last year, Harrison said.
The fraternities are also seeing more freshman interest than in previous years, said Kevin Bronk, Interfraternity Council vice president of marketing and public relations.
“The larger (freshman) class is a big part of it, but Greek life at UO in general is taking a positive turn,” Bronk said. “We’ve been working to help people see how much we can help the students who join our organization.”
The recruitment process is much more structured for sororities, where women participate in a Fall Formal Recruitment, than it is for fraternities, where men are encouraged “to visit with different chapters to find the one that fits them,” according to a Greek Life brochure. Because the recruitment process is much more relaxed for joining a fraternity, they don’t yet have a clear idea how many more students will join this year.
“Other chapters are seeing a lot more people generally (showing interest),” Bronk said. “The scarcity of people is much less this year.”
The Sorority Fall Formal Recruitment is a week-long, highly structured process. Girls spend the first two days visiting four houses a day to talk with women there.
During the remainder of recruitment week, the girls learn about the various philanthropic causes each chapter supports, tour up to four chapter houses, then undergo the selection process.
This year, recruitment organizers have had to increase the number of houses that recruits visit in the first two days in order to accommodate the extra girls and not overwhelm the houses, Harrison said.
Recruitment week for sororities began yesterday and will run through next Wednesday.
Harrison said generally speaking, new recruits do not live in a chapter house during their first year of involvement.
However, the men who join the Greek system are required to live in a chapter house for two years if they join as freshmen, or one year if they join later in their college career, Bronk said.
“I think the University has done a pretty good job of housing students, but I have talked to several guys very interested in getting out of the dorms, or out of Stadium Park,” Bronk said. He added that some of these students may be interested in joining so they can live closer to campus instead of on the other side of the river at Stadium Park Apartments.
Bronk said the Greek system as a whole has been “heavily pushing values based recruitment” so that people are joining in order to take advantage of the many leadership opportunities the system offers.
“We encourage everyone to do more things,” Harrison said. “Greek life really get you out there to do more things.”
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