Sorority recruitment starts this weekend as a team of counselors will introduce potential new members to greek life and explain the bid process. They only have to keep one secret.

To prevent biased bidding, the recruitment counselors – five from each sorority – must disassociate from their houses and can’t reveal their affiliation until the recruitment process ends.

‘We show them around the houses and tell them what’s going on,’ said Alexis Heos, a senior international relations and economics major. ‘We’re basically there to be a friend.’

‘We’re mainly there to guide the girls and answer their questions and concerns,’ said Dena Martini, a senior public relations major.

About 600 women are participating in this year’s recruitment, with 10 to 12 assigned to each counselor. Participants will spend about four hours a day during the week participating in the recruitment process and slightly more time on the weekend, said Hillary Klein, a senior public relations major.

‘The process is arranged for minimal conflict,’ Klein said. ‘Weekday activities are scheduled so as to interfere with classes as little as possible.’

In order to become a recruitment counselor, sorority members must have gone through the recruitment process within the house at least once and must be a junior or senior. Members that apply are interviewed to determine their qualification, Heos said.

In the first round, potential new members visit each sorority house and talk to members of the sorority. During the second round, they narrow their choices down to their seven favorites and make visits to each of these houses. In the final round, the girls visit their top four choices and submit a final three as their bids, Leroy said.

‘It’s a mutual selection process,’ Martini said. ‘Girls don’t always get into their first choice.’

‘The whole week is pretty much a series of conversations,’ Klein said. ‘The majority of girls are pretty happy on bid day.’

Counselors hope to prevent potential new members from voicing disapproval of sororities in which they’re not interested.

‘We hear girls talking and make sure that they aren’t saying negative things about a house,’ said Kim Leroy, senior education major. ‘Also, they don’t know which sorority their counselor belongs to, so they could potentially be offending us. Whether or not the stereotype is true, it’s going to make someone feel bad.’

‘(Potential new members) might not think something is a good fit because of stereotypes,’ Heos said, ‘but it’s mostly about getting in where you’ll be the most comfortable.’

The rules governing recruitment have been drastically relaxed in the past year, though the National Panhellenic Council, which governs greek life at SU, still insists on an alcohol-free recruitment.

‘They’ve eliminated most of the rules that were a bit ridiculous and extreme,’ Martini said. ‘They were made with good intention, but they obviously needed to stop short of ridiculous.’

Counselors are also in place to dispel any negative rumors that potential new members may have heard about sororities.

‘People always ask if it’s like ‘Sorority Life’ on MTV,’ Klein said. ‘It’s nothing like that, though. MTV had to pick a non-national sorority because it’s so atypical of the system. Their sorority is not a member of Panhel.’

‘The rumors aren’t all true,’ Martini said. ‘And the girls learn much more about the Greek System than they’d heard through hearsay before.’

Published on January 29, 2004 at 12:00 pm