Potential new members of the Panhellenic Association will now visit only half of its chapters to learn about different values during Recruitment Preview in November.

The 12 chapters partnered to create presentations about six values, instead of creating individual presentations about their own chapters, PHA president Karalyn Berman said. The Weinberg senior said the change will make Preview about an hour shorter, which will make the process less stressful for PNMs.

Berman said the revised Preview will help address some of the “more toxic, competitive elements” during recruitment.

“We are one community,” Berman said. “We will all succeed when we can bring the members who want to be in our chapters into our community as a whole. Moving towards these collaborative presentations … will more explicitly draw that line.”

Chapters will stress six values: sisterhood, inclusion, service and philanthropy, wellness, leadership and campus involvement.

Previously, PNMs visited all 12 PHA chapters to learn about them individually before the formal recruitment process in Winter Quarter. This year, the presentations are less personal to each chapter and instead focus on the entire PHA community, Berman said.

Hayley Miller, president of Zeta Tau Alpha, said her chapter will create a presentation with Kappa Alpha Theta about sisterhood. The Medill junior, who is a former Daily staffer, said the change will help stress the PHA community as a whole to PNMs.

Miller, who did not attend Preview as a freshman, said some PNMs can feel connected to a chapter after the event, and the change may prevent that opportunity for interested students or discourage them from registering for formal recruitment.

She added that though PHA should stress community, it faces a “short-term problem.”

“My big concern with presenting about the PHA community and what PHA is as a whole is that it might not feel super, super genuine,” Miller said. “I know the PHA experience is different for different people in different chapters. … I do believe it’s a little bit of a stretch this year, how much we’re focusing on the PHA community.”

Berman said the new collaboration will help promote “cross-Panhellenic spirit.”

PNMs will not miss anything by seeing half of the chapter houses, she added.

“Right now, I feel like there is a stronger sense of Panhellenic community than I was aware of when I was younger,” Berman said. “I feel like we’ve grown, and there are a lot of different spaces for our members to interact with the Panhellenic community as a community these days.”

Alpha Phi president Lyndsey Armacost said PNMs can learn about a chapter’s personality during individual conversations at Preview. The Medill senior said her chapter will partner with Gamma Phi Beta to discuss inclusion, and that the partnerships display a greater trend of increased community within the council.

She added that she would’ve enjoyed the change if she were going through the recruitment process because Preview will be shorter than in past years.

“I would’ve had a more positive experience because I wouldn’t be seeing each chapter and trying to discern … what each chapter seemed like on that day,” Armacost said. “Panhellenic Preview should be focused on joining Panhellenic, rather than joining individual chapters.”

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