Panhellenic Council relaxes rules, frees up recruiting
Less intimidating, easier to join, panhel leaders say
By Tony Gonzalez
Opinions Editor
Hillsdale College’s Panhellenic Council voted this month to simplify informal recruitment for the Fall 2007 semester and could vote to eliminate nuanced and often-complained about rules regarding interaction between freshman women and sorority members.
The changes are part of an ongoing project to improve sorority rules and align Hillsdale sorority chapters with the National Panhellenic Conference.
The council had been considering changing informal recruitment, which provides upper class women a chance to join sororities in the fall, since last year.
Amy Thomas
“We’ve been wanting to get rid of informal [recruitment] because it’s not sanctioned by National Panhellenic,” junior Amy Thomas, Panhellenic Council president, said Sunday. “Hillsdale is kind of independent from the national conference… as far away from the national standard as we can get.”
Thomas said changing informal recruitment is the first step to aligning with the national standard. A meeting and evaluation in February by Deb Ensor, a regional adviser for the National Panhellenic Conference, spurred the council to change the policy.
Ensor said by phone Wednesday that she was pleased by the council’s willingness to align with national standards, calling them “forward thinking.”
New fall recruitment will allow upper class women to accept sorority membership invitations, Thomas said. The new policy also eliminates equal-time recruiting events, which required prospectives to participate equally with all potential sororities at dinners and other events.
Thomas and junior Jenny Bowser, Panhellenic Council recruitment chairman, said new recruitment rules will allow sorority members to focus on upper class women and allow a break from yearround recruiting. The system will be less rigid.
Jenny Bowser
“By the time girls are in their sophomore year, we think they know what house they want to join,” Bowser said.
But senior Jenn Bryson, a Chi Omega sorority member, said she used informal recruitment in 2004 to aid in her house decision.
Bryson said the thrill of recruitment will be lost for upper class women.
“It takes away the sense of being recruited by a house,” Bryson said. “Under this system you’re not being actively recruited.”
Senior Rachel Ward, Pi Beta Phi sorority member, participated in informal recruitment and said the sororities will benefit from the change because informal recruitment required a great deal of planning early in the semester.
Ward said freshman women may commit to formal recruitment more seriously their first year if they know informal recruitment doesn’t include the same energy.
Bowser and Thomas said the informal recruitment changes match the council’s overarching goal of attracting women to the Greek system.
The council has also started to revise recruitment rules that govern interaction between freshman women and sorority members.
“Right now, there’s been a lot of discontent and unrest about the recruitment rules,” Thomas said. Bowser agreed.
“Our rules as we have them now burden the development of natural friendships,” she said.
The council could vote to eliminate two rules about freshman women. The rules bar them from being at parties or riding in cars with sorority members when only one sorority is represented.
Thomas said Ensor’s support helped the council recognize the rules that “do more harm than good.”
Bowser grouped the rule changes under the goal of increased “Positive Panhellenic Contact,” which she described as contact that reflects on the Greek system, not a particular house.
“We’re trying to encourage these women to foster good relationships with the freshmen. We are heavily emphasizing honesty and integrity,” Thomas said. “Even with all these rules, we still can’t monitor these rules between sorority members and freshmen—so what’s the point?”
She said less rule-burdened interactions may make the entire Greek system less intimidating.
“If you can’t even take a girl to get coffee…those type of things make the potential new member feel really concerned,” Thomas said.
Bowser and Thomas said the specific interaction rules seemed to be more precautionary than practical.
“[The rules] have good intentions, but you can’t impose a rule on every single thing that happens,” Thomas said. “You need to change the culture of the sororities, not put up a rule.”
The council plans to replace the rules with a code of conduct to be accompanied by training in the revised system.
Thomas said the changes are in draft-stage and will be finished by September, but Bowser expected action before semester’s end. Bowser said recruitment rules are “in my notebook, with X’s through them.”
Sororities will see written change proposals before the council votes. Thomas worries more about teaching the rules than sororities accepting them.
“I think people put more emphasis on it because it’s a rule, but not because it’s the principle of the thing. When it comes to judgment calls, that’s where problems arise,” Thomas said.
She plans to lead training about the conduct code.
The Panhellenic Council consists of two delegates from each sorority house and three voting officers; President Amy Thomas, Secretary and Treasurer Mary Dell, and Recruitment Chairman Jenny Bowser, all juniors.