 "Photo: Michael Pickering")
With formal recruitment kicking off ahead of spring semester, raspy voices, tired but excited eyes, and nervous glances at the mention of bids can be found all over campus.
"Everyone loses their voices during rush," said junior Claire Dickerson, the incoming vice president of Panhellenic public relations. "Everyone is cheering and shouting. It's an exciting time."
Following in the footsteps of Miami's record-setting Class of 2010, out of 3,744 students, 968 women participated in this year's recruitment open house - as opposed to 812 last year. This has become Miami's largest female rushing class.
"I was absolutely elated with the number of potential new members participating," said Emily Valade, vice president of recruitment for the Panhellenic Council. "We try to keep attendance to 35 people at each event so we've extended the time period for chapter events."
Because of fire codes, no more than 60 people can be in a sorority suite at one time but this hasn't hindered the recruitment process and, according to both Valade and Dickerson, it has only revealed a greater appreciation of Greek life on Miami's campus.
"Thirty-three percent of the student population is Greek," Dickerson said. "It influences both your academic and your social life."
Dickerson made mention of the housing requirement for first-years rushing this year who must live in sorority corridors located in Central quad dorms next year.
"By next year most of Central quad will be Greek," Dickerson said.
First-year recruits were required to sign a housing contract during rush saying they would live on campus their sophomore year. Also new this year is that the GPA for potential new members has been dropped from 2.6 to 2.3.
"The Panhellenic chapters voted on this proposal in the spring of 2006 because there are chapters at Miami who are allowed to recruit women who have a 2.3 according to the national guidelines/rules and the consensus was that it was unfair to deny them this opportunity," Valade said.
Rosie Landau, president of Sigma Local Jewish sorority, has another reason to be excited.
"We became an Alpha Epsilon Phi interest group and are working on getting our national affiliation," she said. "We can't participate in formal recruitment but we did participate in the open house."
Two national representatives from the organization came to Miami University to help the chapter with their presentation and informal recruitment.
"We definitely don't have the manpower right now to have a formal recruitment anyway," Landau said. "We're still pretty brand new, but once recruitment is over we'll have a big public relations campaign and get our name out there."
Anyone who pledges a sorority during formal recruitment cannot also pledge Alpha Epsilon Phi's interest group.
"We're just letting the girls know they have another option if they don't pledge," Landau said. "The girls that see us and get excited about starting a new sorority are the ones that will attend our info sessions later in January."
One of the national representatives will be living in Oxford for the next month helping the chapter get on its feet.
"We've made so much progress this year," Landau said. "It meant a lot to be a Sigma but for most of us it means even more to be AEPhi."Valade agreed that this is an exciting start.
"They have done an excellent job and I have received positive feedback from them regarding their Open House experience," she said. "Informal recruitment was something we implemented for all of the Panhellenic chapters in the fall of 2005 and we've had quite a bit of good results."
While the first year for informal recruitment was open only to chapters with fewer than 105 members, everyone is now allowed to participate.
"All of the chapters are allowed to host two events in the first semester before formal recruitment begins," Valade said. "We've found that it's a great way for the potential new members to get to know everyone before January when things become more intimidating and stressful. They can see what Greek life is really about."
Valade said they also encourage the chapters hold lunches and coffee dates in an effort to not only create friendships but also offer information about recruitment.
Potential new members for formal recruitment will be receiving their bids Monday, Jan. 15.
While the fraternities aren't expecting quite the numbers the sororities received, they are still optimistic about their own recruitment that began Wednesday night and will carry through for some fraternities until Saturday.
"Things have gone tremendously well so far," said Chris Chisom, outgoing vice president of public relations for the Interfraternity Council. "Our recruitment is pretty traditional and didn't need much change simply because it is a lot less structured than the sorority recruitment."
Chisom said that most fraternity pledge periods will begin by this weekend.
"My fraternity had almost 60 guys come through the house last night and there will probably be more tonight," he said. "Several other chapters I've talked to have had a great turnout as well. Everyone's pretty happy."
