By Matt Thacker
The Interfraternity Council has kicked off another year of recruiting for its 11 fraternities but made a few changes this year to bolster efforts to break the record for most recruits.
The IFC held an interest session Aug. 24 for freshmen considering fraternities. Current Greek Life members hosted the event, which featured two guest speakers: SGA President Bill Brammell and former SGA and Beta Theta Pi President Todd Schmiedeler.
IFC President Joey Wilkerson said the event was held because the annual “Why go Greek?” meeting had a low turnout due to scheduling conflicts with the Panhellenic Council. Wilkerson said the IFC has made a more intense effort this year to bolster recruiting, hoping to break its record of 261 recruits in 2001.
Brammell and Schmiedeler did their part to sell Greek Life to the 50 men who attended the interest session. Brammell, a member of Sigma Chi, said he regrets not having joined a fraternity his first semester at U of L, but that he has enjoyed the opportunities his fraternity has provided since then.
Schmiedeler said that his fraternity was like a family. “They took me in and created an environment that allowed me to be successful,” he said.
Sophomore Elliott Fussinger has already been involved in fraternities. He and several other members attended the event to answer questions about fraternity life.
“[Fraternities are] a great way to meet people and to get involved,” he said.
Freshman Clint Seibert said that he plans to join a fraternity and that it wasn’t difficult to choose which one to join. He said his friends are already members of Tau Kappa Epsilon, so he wants to join TKE also.
But other students, like sophomore Logan Stewart, simply went for the free spaghetti dinner. When asked why he didn’t plan on joining a fraternity, he replied, “No time, no money, no interest.”
Wilkerson acknowledged that Greek life is not for everyone, but added that most people benefit from the number of contacts made on and off campus through fraternities. In fact, Greek Life Adviser Joni Burke predicted that in one night of RUSH, which began Sunday and will continue through Thursday, a freshman could meet as many as 500 new people.
“Joining a fraternity opens doors that would otherwise not be open to you,” Wilkerson said.
Jesse Welte, a member of Kappa Sigma, said he believes that movies and TV shows featuring wild fraternity parties have created an obstacle for recruiting efforts. He hopes that the good done by fraternities will become more evident in the future.
Burke said there are 1,100 students involved in the Greek sytsem and that they completed a combined total of 34,000 hours of community service last year. Wilkerson hopes that message, along with work done by the IFC, will bring more recruits.
The IFC and Panhellenic Council also created a “Guide to Greek Life.” Wilkerson noted that the last time they created a guide was in 2001, the year that the current record was set
Sorority pledges increase
Panhellenic Council President Renea Steele said sororities, whose recruitment ran Aug. 13-18, had 120 women pledge, five more than last year.
“I think recruitment was very successful,” she said.
She said that the Panhellenic Council worked this year to increase the number of recruits offered bids.
She said that they accomplished their goal of increasing bids by helping incoming students find the sorority that suited them best.
Recruiting also went technological this year. U of L kept track of recruits in an online database. Steele said this made it easier for sororities to pull up a recruit’s information and decide whether or not to offer a bid.
Steele said that Alpha Omicron Pi still had a few spots available and that interested students could contact the Greek Life office by calling 852-6691.
