After the Interfraternity Council (IFC) saw an increase in accepted bids for the spring semester, executives are soliciting feedback from fraternity chapters about the new recruitment system.
Because of the apparent success of the new "values-based recruitment," registration fees and a dry recruitment process are likely to stay in place in the fall, Interfraternity Council President Max Wendkos said.
"Considering the effectiveness of this spring's recruitment and the executive board's dedication to further facilitating the recruitment efforts of our chapters in the fall, I do not anticipate we will be eliminating any of these aspects," Wendkos (senior-economics and psychology) said.
During spring recruitment, fraternities saw an increase in the number of recruits who were offered bids and accepted them.
This semester, 323 registered recruits received bids and 274 accepted them, an acceptance rate of 84.8 percent. That's an increase from last year, when 282 registered recruits were offered bids and 184 accepted, a rate of 65.2 percent.
Wendkos said the high percentage of acceptance was due to the bonds formed among chapter members in the new recruiting process.
Indeed, Delta Chi President Dan Kutz said he saw improvement in the number of recruits for his fraternity go up and accredits it to the amount of time members of his fraternity spent getting to know its new members.
The fraternity held events specifically to get to know recruits, including a cookout, a bowling night and a poker tournament.
"As a president of a fraternity, I want to recruit the highest quality. When I was talking, I would stress to them more respectable areas of fraternity and greek life," Kutz (sophomore-finance) said. "This associate class really embodies these values."
However, some fraternity leaders said the new system did not yield as many recruits as usual.
For Sigma Pi President Lee Connolly, this semester's recruitment didn't live up to the standards of previous years. While spring generally brings in fewer recruits, Connolly (senior-finance) said the dry policy and the short period of time for recruiting -- about three weeks -- drew fewer recruits than normal.
For a spring semester, Connolly's fraternity usually gets 10 to 15 pledges. This semester, there were only seven, he said.
While there needs to be time to get to know new members, he doesn't think they should be left out of all the social aspects.
"In the fall, there were dry events and zone days," Connolly said. "I liked the combo. I didn't feel like we had to shun them completely from those events."
And it's these evaluations that the IFC will be taking into consideration when Interfraternity Council Vice President for Membership Mark Mixon meets with fraternities in the coming weeks.
After spring break, Mixon (senior-energy, business and finance) will begin meeting with chapters to incorporate their ideas on how to further improve recruitment for the fall semester.
Wendkos said he has high hopes for this spring's recruits to eventually become the chapter officers and IFC executives who will lead the fraternity community.
"I look forward to building upon this success that the current Interfraternity Council has experienced thus far and bringing in a large group of high quality men to continue to move the fraternity community in a positive direction," Wendkos said.
