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Interfraternity Council spring recruiting is down a quarter this year compared to last year, a decline that some fraternity leaders attribute to people moving away from Greek life on campus.
Assistant Dean of Student Life Brian Joyce said 144 students participated in IFC spring recruitment this spring, and 84 accepted offers from fraternities out of 129 deferred offers from fraternities this spring. Quota. The number marks a 27.5% drop in accepted bids compared with 116 last spring, which IFC and chapter leaders said is consistent with changes in fraternity and sorority participation at Georgetown and across the country. consistent.
“To increase recruitment numbers in the future, IFC plans to enhance programming, create more visibility for potential new members, and demonstrate the values of the FSL community,” Joyce said in an email.
Joyce said Delta Tau Delta extended 25 bids and accepted 20 new members, Kappa Sigma extended 20 bids and accepted 19 new members, and Sigma Chi extended 20 bids and accepted 12 new members, Zeta Beta Tau extended 21 bids and accepted 11 members. Tau Kappa Epsilon adds seven members and extends 11 bids; Beta Theta Pi adds five members and extends 14 bids; Alpha Epsilon Pi adds five members from six bids; Sigma Alpha Epsilon adds five members from six bids Four members were added to the bid; Joyce said Alpha Sigma Phi did not take on any new members after extending the bid.
Despite “initial concerns” due to low registration numbers for spring recruiting, the larger IFC chapter welcomed 15 to 22 new members, said IFC vice president and senior William McClendon, who said said it was on par with previous years.
McClendon said the number of people signing up for recruiting is down, as the number of people signing up for fall recruiting has more than doubled from last year. Fifty-three students accepted fraternity bids in fall 2023, while 22 students accepted fraternity bids in fall 2022, and 77 students accepted fraternity bids in spring 2022.
“We think it’s just a stabilizing effect, with enrollment increasing in the fall and enrollment decreasing in the spring,” McClendon said.
McClendon said IFC executive board members voted in the fall to change terms for electronic board positions from a calendar-year transition in December to a school-year transition in May. He said IFC leaders made adjustments to allow outgoing leaders to use the summer to prepare for the recruitment cycle for new board members, rather than the three weeks at the start of the spring semester. The change would also allow seniors to hold electronic board positions.
“Our biggest recruiting class is in the spring and we want our next board to be more prepared in the spring and not just that, instead of only having three weeks to transition, they have the entire summer to transition, McClendon said.
He said IFC leaders are discussing with fraternity and sorority life leaders and chapter members the benefits of condensing the current two-week recruitment process into one week ahead.
“It’s all about making it more accessible to as many people on campus as possible and then also making the reach larger,” McClendon said.
Sophomore and Beta Theta Pi president Alec Shafran said recruiting this semester was “not the best” for Beta Theta Pi, but the chapter was successful in recruiting more members during a post-recruitment open bidding period that allowed the chapter to Informally extend bidding time to students. Shafran said the decline this semester echoes a larger cultural and perspective shift among men who view people in fraternities as “dumb,” “superficial,” and focused only on the party side of Greek life, which discourages people from joining. .
Shafran said IFC leaders should give students opportunities to learn about the overall benefits of Greek life, such as involvement in philanthropic activities and intramural sports, rather than recruiting based on the values of each chapter.
“This is not so much a wake-up call as it is proof that things are changing,” Shafran said. “Attitudes toward Greek life are changing, and we have to adjust accordingly.”
Abolish Greek Life — a national movement to end predominantly white fraternities and sororities — has prompted many U.S. colleges to rethink the structure of Greek life and led to the death of many fraternities and sororities Members left their chapters. Abolish Greek Life at GW is an Instagram account with over 1,000 followers that became active in November 2020 and posts reports of alleged incidents of racism, bullying, and sexual assault in fraternities and sororities on campus to encourage the elimination of Greek organizations .
Sigma Chi President Chris Coulter said the chapter’s 15 new members are smaller than the number the chapter has admitted in the past, but he is excited about the energy the new members will bring to the fraternity. Sigma Chi was placed on probation for one year from April 2022 to May 2023 after officials found the chapter was responsible for hosting an unregistered drinking event and uncovered bullying during new member education.
Coulter said he believes the decline in potential new member enrollment is indicative of the growing alienation of the university and other college campuses from Greek life.
“Ultimately, this will lead to a change in the tide on the George Washington University campus, which is a shift away from Greek life,” Coulter said. “Across the country, you’re seeing pretty comparable numbers and comparable declines.”
Connor Wolosewicz, a sophomore and director of recruiting at Delta Tau Delta, said recruiting has been a “smooth process” despite the anxiety surrounding low enrollment. He said increased contact and messaging with potential new members this spring will be key to helping the chapter gain the same number of new members as in previous years.
“I know there are a lot of people who want to be with [potential new members]so I try to convey as best I can when all the events happened, where all the events happened and how interested we are in them,” Volosevic said.
Volosevic said this year’s recruiting process did not include the more casual annual events the FSL has hosted in previous semesters, such as “Get to Know the Greeks,” which may have contributed to the lower turnout.
“I wish they would host a Meet the Greeks event like I did because during the course of my commitment I had a low-key Meet the Greeks day in the student center where I could get a first look at all the chapters, to get an idea of what they have,” Volosevic said.
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