Northwestern’s Panhellenic Association and Interfraternity Council recruitment numbers remained largely the same this year, Greek organization leaders said. PHA offered about 30 more bids during recruitment in 2015 while receiving the same number of registrants, according to PHA president Katherine Doyle.

PHA organizations extended bids to 473 students this year; 445 received bids last year, she said. IFC saw 368 students join its fraternities in 2015, two fewer than last year.

Doyle said that this year, PHA focused on drawing attention to positive effects NU sororities can have on campus. When reports about incidents in Greek life at other universities arise, the “good things that we do stand,” the Medill junior said.

PHA made changes to emphasize values and increase transparency on what chapters are looking for in potential new members, Doyle said.

“We revamped values training into a personalized program that’s particular to NU,” Doyle said. “It’s a guided activity that gets you to think about your personal values.”

Sarah Parker, PHA vice president of membership and a SESP senior, said the association also implemented a new requirement for set three of the recruitment process, informally known as “skit day,” that features an increased focus on values.

PHA now requires that the content of these skits must be “values-based” and demonstrate “chapter’s specific values, tenants or open mottos or the PHA values (social, scholarship, service, leadership, and/or sisterhood.),” according to a Recruitment Agreement that PHA required each sorority adhere to.

The number of students who joined each IFC fraternity varied. The fraternity with the largest incoming class is Phi Delta Theta with 35 new members, while the fraternity with the smallest is Phi Gamma Delta with seven.

“We haven’t set any firm goals in place yet to change the recruitment process, although some of the areas that we see for improvement are in trying to better educate newer members,” IFC president Kyle Sieber said.

Seiber, a Weinberg senior, said he is interested in how service opportunities can be better integrated into the recruitment process, and how recruits can be more exposed to that aspect of fraternity life.

Communication and Bienen freshman Chris Landy, who accepted a bid from Delta Chi, noted a significant difference between fraternity recruitment and sorority recruitment.

“The rush process was very low-pressure, unlike the sorority thing where they seem to stress out over their minds,” he said.

Fraternity chapters are able to get to know new members over a longer period of time through events such as Sunday night dinners, which could attribute to the difference between fraternity and sorority recruitment, Landy said.

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