Sorority recruitment goes virtual

Sorority chapters adjusted their recruitment process to fit an online format that attempted to mimic the in-person experience. Photo courtesy of Elena Trask, membership chair of Chapman University’s Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter.

Normally at this time of year, Chapman University's campus would be filled with the clacking of high heels, nervous laughter and the frantic sounds of active sorority members rehearsing their chants. 

Instead, 2021 sorority recruitment took an all-new approach, presenting an entirely online experience for hundreds of potential new members (PNMs) seeking to explore the eight different chapters of Chapman Panhellenic.

In attending various Zoom meetings throughout the week, PNMs were given presentations from executives of each chapter speaking on behalf of the sorority’s values, philanthropy opportunities and favorite sorority memories. PNMs then participated in a series of breakout rooms to have one-on-one conversations with other members.

“I actually liked the breakout rooms because it was a non-distracting environment where I could just focus solely on my conversations,” said Caley McCline, a sophomore business administration major and new member of the Delta Gamma sorority.

In the week leading up to formal recruitment, typically known as “work week,” the active members of each chapter gather to practice and prepare, sometimes spending over 12 hours rehearsing songs, chants, speeches and conversations. However, it is traditionally through this planning process that active members are given the most opportunities to bond with one another, according to Kylie Zaring, a junior television writing and production major in the Gamma Phi Beta sorority. 

“We usually spend so much time together in the same room that we get to really know girls that you maybe never talk to in your own chapter,” Zaring said. “That was missing (over Zoom).”

Formal recruitment can be a physically and emotionally debilitating process: four to five days of dressing up, running between buildings across campus, talking about oneself, smiling for hours on end and judging a chapter based on a five to 10-minute conversation with a stranger. Mary Gillette, this year’s vice president of membership for Gamma Phi Beta, told The Panther that the online nature of this year’s recruitment cycle helped ease some of those usual stressors. 

“Virtual recruitment was beneficial in a way because it was way less about the glitz and the glamour, (and) more just about meeting people and having conversations,” Gillette said. 

Virtual connections were successfully made as Chapman University’s eight sorority chapters welcomed the new members. Although sprung upon unwillingly due to the pandemic, Gillette categorized this new process as a success since conversations necessary for recruitment were smoothly transferred to the virtual space.

“It was actually a great experience at the end of the day,” she said.