Marking a change from past years, sorority rush candidates will not need to arrive on campus before the spring semester begins and recruitment events will start Friday, Jan. 12--two days after the start of the semester.
The Panhellenic Association was able to push back the recruitment process because the academic year began a week later last August, said Todd Adams, assistant dean of students for fraternity and sorority life.
"It was literally looking at seniors to come back just a few days after New Years," he said in regards to previous years. "That was unreasonable. It was done off a calendar, not a major change in direction or policy."
Apart from the scheduling adjustment, sorority-recruitment events will proceed no differently than in previous years, Adams said.
"They're both relatively the same duration they've always been," he said. "From a timeline perspective you're going to see a similar approach as to past years."
At the start of the Spring 2006 semester, rush candidates returned to campus three days before classes began for meet-and-greet activities. Sorority leaders arrived earlier to organize rush procedure and plan events.
Starting later will eliminate past problems of limited housing, buses and food options on campus that occurred during past recruitment periods, said senior Chrissie Gorman, Panhellenic Association president.
"It made it a lot easier to start after classes began," Gorman said. "The year before there were issues with whether buses were running and whether food places were open. It was putting a strain on the system."
In response to suggestions made about the 2006 process, recruitment chairs from the 10 sorority chapters voted to approve a complete recruitment schedule that included the changed start date, said senior Bethany Schraml, Panhellenic Association vice president of recruitment and management.
"Everybody was really supportive of changing it to after the start of classes," Schraml said.
The delayed start of the recruitment process, however, has raised some concerns, as some have said it may interfere with the hectic process of adjusting to new classes.
"I was initially disappointed because I thought it was a lot for our girls to handle," said senior Lisa Rainey, president of Delta Delta Delta sorority. "I am concerned about getting everyone together. People are going to be trying out new classes and adding and dropping, and it's a lot of restraints put on the new members. I think it puts a lot of extra stress on the members of the sororities and the potential members."
Marisa Siegel, a freshman who plans to rush sororities in January, said getting a few extra days of vacation makes enduring the stress of rushing as classes start manageable.
"There are pluses and minuses," Siegel said. "I'm glad that we get an extra week of break even if it means it's a little more difficult to balance classes and rush."
Schraml said the changed start date could have contributed to the increased turnout for recruitment registration-which ended Dec. 3.
"The numbers this year are up a little bit so I think it has some effect," Schraml said.
Selective living houses have planned their events around the adjusted recruitment period to limit conflicts with sorority activities, said Brownstone President Rebecca Miller, a senior.
"We try to be aware of events when we are planning with our calendars, so it's just one more thing to take into account," Miller said.
With no other changes made to amend the upcoming recruitment period, Adams expects the process to run smoothly on the adjusted schedule.
"The timing doesn't affect us that much," Adams said. "We haven't seen any effect at all in terms of securing rooms and location. From a planning and logistics perspective we can make either [start date] work with relative ease."
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