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Greek Fall recruitment may include freshmen |
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Tuesday, 27 February 2007 |
by DYLAN CLAYTON
News Reporter
Greek life at Appalachian State University may soon undergo some drastic changes.
Deferred rush, the system of recruitment implemented at Appalachian in 2002, may be coming to an end for sororities on campus.
With the process of deferred rush, students are required to have a semester of credit before being eligible to participate in the recruitment of sororities and fraternities on campus.
 Active Image | Jonathan Williams | The Appalachian
Appalachian Alpha Delta Pi sisters explain the inner-workings of their sorority through skits and songs.
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“There
has been a proposal to move formal recruitment to the fall,” Aaron H.
Bachenheimer, assistant director of the Lee H. McCaskey Center for
Student Involvement and Leadership, said.
The proposal hopes to eliminate deferred rush, along with the system’s major recruitment occurring spring semester.
Instead, students interested in joining a sorority will be able to go through recruitment fall semester of their freshmen year.
“It’s important for students to know that when deferred rush was
implemented in 2002, we told the Greek community that it would be
reviewed after three years,” Bachenheimer said.
At this point, however, this will only affect sororities on campus.
Panhellenic Council, the governing body over the seven sororities on
campus affiliated with the National Panhellenic Conference, worked hard
to create the proposal that is currently being reviewed by Dino
DiBernardi, associate vice chancellor for Student Development.
One major factor for ending deferred rush was found when Panhellenic Council did research to include in its proposal.
“We’ve looked at surveys incoming freshmen complete every year,” Mary
L. Mangum, junior finance and banking major and Panhellenic Council
President, said. “At the beginning of the semester, there is a higher
interest level in joining a sorority. As the semester goes on, that
number deteriorates.”
Unlike sororities, most other clubs on campus offer membership to freshmen their first semester in school.
“I think it’s a good thing to be able to bring freshmen into Greek life
just like any other club does,” Bachenheimer said. “I think students
should have the choice to become involved as incoming freshmen.”
Mangum hopes to see increased numbers in sorority membership.
“It’s going to help build numbers and give freshmen an opportunity to
be involved and stay involved. Those who want to join are going to join
their first three weeks of school and build a solid group of friends,”
Mangum said.
In order for numbers to rise in sorority membership, Bachenheimer feels
sororities will still need to tell students the benefits of Greek life.
“It’s a big commitment joining a Greek organization. It’s a lifetime
commitment, and sororities will need to inform the campus before they
see a change,” he said.
Another change that will occur if the proposal is approved is the grade point average requirements for recruitment.
Currently, the minimum GPA needed for women to go through rush is a 2.25, according to greeks.appstate.edu.
“Since freshmen coming in will not have a college GPA, we will have to look at their high school GPA,” Mangum said.
For this reason, the GPA requirement will most likely be increased.
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