Tuesday, September 6 concluded 2017’s fall Formal Recruitment for all Panhellenic sororities on UNC Wilmington’s campus. A Panhellenic sorority is one that belongs to the National Panhellenic Conference. This governing body regulates activity of social sororities across the nation.  At 5 p.m. on Tuesday night, potential new members arrived at the Clocktower Lounge in Fisher Student Union. The women were given their bids individually by their recruitment counselors. This came after a five-days’ long process for the potential new members.

Formal recruitment consists of three separate rounds occurring on different days: philanthropy, sisterhood and preference. Girls will spend two days meeting chapters for philanthropy, two days meeting girls for sisterhood, and one day talking to at most three chapters for the final preference round. Each round is designed to accommodate a certain theme.

In philanthropy round, chapters talk about their respective philanthropic endeavors. Sisterhood round is designed to get to know the chapter on a slightly deeper level. Girls may talk about meaningful connections they’ve experienced in their chapter, and how their organizations values correspond to respective members of the chapter. On preference day, potential new members spend an hour talking to anywhere between one and three organizations. In this round, girls are invited in on a more intimate level and the conversations are meant to establish connections and chemistry between potential new members and women of the chapter.

Panhellenic Council is also home to its own executive board. The women on this board are all members of respective Panhellenic sororities on campus. Panhellenic Vice President of Programs Lynsey Sain of Chi Omega says, “Executive board is required to be a Gamma Chi. Therefore the process has been bittersweet while being separated from my chapter, but I’ve really enjoyed getting to know more inspiring women through Panhellenic.”

When girls register for formal recruitment at UNCW, they are placed into a Gamma Chi group. Each group may have anywhere between twenty to thirty potential new members and approximately two to three assigned counselors. Each group will have creative names such as the “Dubai Darlings” or “Lovely Londoners.”

The job of the Gamma Chi counselor is to provide a non-biased experience for the girls. A Gamma Chi will disaffiliate from her chapter. After freshman move-in, these counselors may not associate with women of their chapter. The objective with this rule is to make it harder for potential new members to discover the respective chapters of their Gamma Chis. If a girl discovers her Gamma Chi is in a particular chapter, she may be more or less biased to choose that chapter based on her feelings towards her counselor.

Occasionally, potential new members will become anxious while going through recruitment. It is in these times counselors will try to console girls and ease their qualms. McKenna Nelson, a second-year Gamma Chi, says, “We want to encourage them to go through with the whole process. Especially if they’ve made it to the last day, it never hurts to give it a shot and see what you might get out of the experience.”

Formal recruitment is home to other rules as well. A violation of a rule will result in an “infraction,” and the chapter responsible for violating this rule must pay the Panhellenic Council a fine. Fines are used to pay for the following year’s formal recruitment budget for Panhellenic Council. Each policy has a separate fine attached to it.

For example, a sorority may not “bid promise” when talking to potential new members during formal recruitment. If a chapter member were to say something like “See you later” or “See you tomorrow” to a woman visiting their chapter, that would be a bid promise. Sorority members also may not violate guidelines of “strict silence” when speaking to potential new members either. Outside of the rounds, Panhellenic encourages chapter members to only engage in courteous contact (smiling, holding the door open, communication in class, etc.) with potential new members.

The formal recruitment process finishes on bid day, a day Jessy Thurnes of Phi Mu describes as “the most exciting day of the year.” Taking place on Hoggard Lawn, each sorority chapter stands in a spot waiting for the arrival of their new members. Chapters are called out based on alphabetical order, and the women will run towards their new chapter to meet everyone. Once each chapter has received their new girls, Gamma Chi’s will be called out according to group order (Gamma Chi group 1, 2, 3, etc.) where they will then run towards the chapter they disaffiliated from. Panhellenic sororities of UNCW’s campus will recruit again in the Spring of 2018 as the semester begins.