As recruitment parties got underway at 7 p.m. Thursday, the sorority quads were silent except for the occasional ghostly murmur of distant chatter. At exactly 7:30, the din of several different chants erupted. Women filed outside, serenaded by “Delta Gamma, Delt, Delta Gamma,” sung to the tune of the Beach Boys’ “Help Me Rhonda.”
“I always wanted to rush,” Weinberg freshman Jessica Tsenver said earlier in the evening at the Allison dining hall, which was a temporary sea of identical light blue T-shirts and dark-wash jeans tucked into boots. “I’ve always liked the idea of a sorority.”
More than 600 women registered for sorority recruitment this winter, said Caitlin Shaw, a Communication senior and vice president for membership of the Northwestern Panhellenic Association. That number is higher than last year’s total of 550 and surpasses the record high for recruitment participants, set in 2007 when 577 women started the process.
Tsenver said the popularity of RumorRoyalty.com, a Web site whose bloggers posted their opinions of sororities over the summer, may have generated more buzz about recruitment among freshmen this year.
“I was interested in (RumorRoyalty); what sororities were the good ones, what sororities were the bad ones,” Tsenver said. “But I take stuff like that with a grain of salt. It’s fun to read, but I don’t necessarily think it’s true.”
Shaw declined to comment about whether the blog had an effect.
“We did a lot more publicity this year, so I would say if there was more buzz, it was probably from that,” Shaw said.
Communication freshman Dianne Lee said seeing other girls prepare for recruitment made her want to join the process.
“I was just jumping on the bandwagon because a lot of my friends were doing it and I didn’t want to be left out,” Lee said.
Lee said she is still uncertain as to whether or not she wants to pledge a sorority. Her recruitment counselor, a sorority member who is temporarily “disaffiliated” with her chapter to maintain neutrality, has encouraged her to join.
“She’s pushing us to pledge, but in a good way,” Lee said. “She’s really positive about it.”
Recruitment counselors were selected in the spring and trained throughout Fall Quarter, Shaw said.
In addition to meeting with recruitment counselors, many potential new members have gone through a practice round of recruitment and attended meetings in order to prepare for the process. They were advised on their rights and counseled on what to wear during each round of recruitment, ranging from “first day of school” to “little black dress.”
Despite the guidance they have received, many said they were nervous.
“I guess I want to end up somewhere I like,” Tsenver said. “I don’t know what will happen. You just can’t get around that uncertainty.”
Tsenver cited this added pressure as the main difference between sorority and fraternity recruitment.
“It’s way more stressful,” Tsenver said. “They kind of know what’s going to happen to them along the way, whereas we have no idea.”
Between parties, Shaw stood in the quad, holding a yellow stopwatch. At exactly 7:37, she looked up, checking to see that each sorority house opened its door in perfect synchrony. Guided by recruitment counselors in LED light-up necklaces, the women lined up outside new houses.
“They’re really cheerful,” McCormick freshman Helen Shen said with a good-natured laugh. “Even though we’re out in the cold and we’re like, ‘We’re not that happy.'”
