GC sorority houses worked through the malfunctions of potential new members dropping, not showing up to their parties, or being dismissed from the recruitment process. This year’s recruitment process proved to be more difficult than prior years as sororities were forced to overcome challenges presented by this year’s Potential New Members (PNMs). 

In early August, Greek sorority life welcomed the girl’s class of 2026 with open arms. Not long into recruitment week, reports of potential new members were bashing on what could be their potential new homes. The recruitment process is different from each perspective of Pi Chi’s, recruitment chairs, recruiters, and PNMs. 

“It was really challenging hearing and seeing the negativity from girls who wouldn’t get invited back to a house that they wanted,” said Pi Chi Sarah Grace Livingston, Junior nursing major.

Many Pi Chi’s felt stressed to fulfill their duties. Challenges were faced by Pi Chi groups daily as they tried to guide potential new members through this process. 

“Trying to create a group of girls where everyone felt included and safe was also a bit challenging because the groups became very cliquish,” Livingston said. 

Countless hours went into perfecting the recruitment process. Most houses put in months of preparation, starting in the spring of that year.  The reports and social media blast of potential new members being disrespectful and hateful was an obstacle for all of GC sorority life to conquer. 

“It was upsetting to hear some of the feedback we would get, but in all honesty, it gave us an even bigger reason to treat the potential new members with open minds- it’s a stressful week,” said sophomore marketing major Noam Lak.

Sorority life individually dealt with what needed to happen for this process to become a more positive and memorable recruitment process for potential new members, recruiters, and Pi Chi’s. 

This process is nothing short of stressful but the attitude during the said process is most rewarding by the end. Due to the negativity throughout the week, many girls dropped out of recruitment because they were faced with the impression that sorority life is toxic. 

A handful of girls were also asked to dismiss themselves from the recruitment process, including the ineligibility to go through recruitment again until the following semester. Fortunately, after speaking to Junior accounting major Carson Whitmire, she explained how they resolved any issues. 

“Luckily, we would find out who had dropped way ahead of schedule,” Whitmore said. “Any problems could have been resolved in minutes.”

Though Pi Chi groups were the first parties affected by potential new members dropping- as a whole, houses were not impacted enough to cause irreversible damage. As a result of a low number of registered potential new members, the droppings and or dismissals of potential new members, many houses did not meet pledge class quotas. 

The repercussions of this led to a longer recruitment process for sororities after Rush Week. Sororities were tabled on the front campus to raise interest and meet more potential members who hadn’t signed up to rush originally. Sororities dealt with the drop in recruitment numbers by extending their recruitment process and offering Call-On-Bids (COBs) later in the fall. While this fall has caused lots of stress, the benefit of the drop in recruitment comes to the girls who had not been able to participate originally but have since changed their minds.