Gamma Phi Beta is preparing to recruit its first Duke pledge class in the Spring, becoming the tenth sorority on campus.
Following the formal Panhellenic Association recruitment process for Spring, the new chapter will conduct public relations efforts and announce its extension process. Consultants from Gamma Phi Beta visited campus the week of Nov. 10 and hosted an information session. In contrast to the nine chapters currently on campus, Gamma Phi Beta will recruit unaffiliated juniors and seniors, as well as freshmen and sophomores.
The Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life announced in April that Gamma Phi Beta would be joining the Greek community, after the Panhellenic Association made the decision to expand in Spring 2012.
“We look for people that we think are going to be a part of our community and mesh well with the community,” said Clarybel Peguero, assistant dean and director of fraternity and sorority life. “Gamma Phi Beta really sold us on that it would be able to come in and really be a part of our Duke community,”
The addition of the new chapter will serve to alleviate the burden on the current sororities of accommodating the large numbers of interested students. Gamma Phi Beta will also provide a new option for women who might choose not to rush at all or withdraw from recruitment, Peguero said.
The number of first-year women who decide to rush each year has remained steady over the past few years, while the number of sophomores who decide to participate in sorority life has increased dramatically, Peguero said. In 2008, there was one sophomore who went through recruitment, versus 2012, when there were 60.
Although not all of the University’s sororities are currently at chapter total—the average number of members per chapter—Panhel is not concerned.
“These numbers are to keep the chapter sizes similar, but being under that doesn’t mean a chapter is bad or in trouble,” Howard said. “Gamma Phi Beta is just another option that will inevitably provide a different sorority experience than the established chapters.”
Currently, Gamma Phi Beta does not have a housing assignment on campus. Peguero said she did not believe that this would impact the chapter’s recruitment numbers.
“I think that will be one thing that will set them apart,” she said. “In the meantime, they can say, ‘This is who we are and we don’t have housing, but these are the opportunities we do have.’”
Last year, 475 women registered for recruitment and 364 received bids, compared to 504 registrants and 373 bids the year before. Of the women who register for recruitment but do not receive a bid, the majority are those who drop out during the process, said Panhel President Katie Howard, a senior. So long as a potential new member “maximizes her options” by accepting invitations from every house to which she is invited during recruitment, she is guaranteed a bid on Bid Day, Howard added.
Overall, those who withdraw may discover that sorority life overall is not for them, decide to join a selective living group instead or simply not find a fit with any of the chapters on-campus, said sophomore Lauren King, director of Panhel public relations. The addition of Gamma Phi Beta will provide another opportunity to join Greek life for the women who do not find a match with any of Duke’s nine current sororities.
“A woman might go through recruitment and find that this is not for them and they would like to be a founding mother of another chapter,” Peguero said. “We have plenty of women who do not go through the process entirely because maybe they don’t find a connection, so here’s another opportunity.”
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