The sorority recruitment and intake processes at Gettysburg College are very similar to the processes used at most institutions with nationally affiliated organizations.
The Panhellenic sororities' formal recruitment process was developed and implemented by the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC). Six of our seven sororities are NPC organizations, and participate in formal recruitment.
Gettysburg also has one active National Pan-Hellenic Council organization, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. This organization follows the recruitment process required by their own national organization, referred to as a new member intake process, and does not participate in formal recruitment. Their process does not always occur during the same timeframe, yet Zeta is required to follow all other college policies relating to sorority recruitment. If your daughter is interested in joining Zeta Phi Beta, we encourage her to reach out to the organization's president who can provide additional information.
Contact information for all organizations.
FORMAL RECRUITMENT
The concept of mutual selection describes the underlying philosophy and practice of sorority recruitment. The term mutual selection means that your daughter has the right to select those organizations which interest her, and those organizations have the same right in selecting potential new members (PNMs) which interest them.
Once a PNM has registered for recruitment, she is placed into a recruitment group and given a current sorority member as a recruitment counselor. This student's role is to guide the women through recruitment and answer any questions or concerns your daughter may have about joining an organizations.
A formal recruitment weekend is held each fall to facilitate the process of mutual selection. All PNMs attend events over formal recruitment weekend called "parties" during which they visit the various sorority chapter rooms. These parties take place over the course of three nights, with each night being one round of recruitment. During the first round of recruitment, PNMs will attend parties in each organization suite. This process is repeated two more times as PNMs narrow down the organizations they are interested in, and the organizations narrow down the PNMs they'd like to offer bids to. During the second round of recruitment, each woman can only visit a maximum of 4 sororities and during the final round, each woman can visit a maximum of 2 sororities.
On Sunday of formal recruitment, each organization distributes bids to PNMs. A bid is a formal invitation to join a sorority. Gettysburg College, nor Panhellenic, restricts the number of women that can join sororities, but also does not guarantee that every woman will receive a bid. We encourage you and your daughter to be aware of this fact and to consider this when going through the recruitment process.
We encourage each PNM to keep an open mind throughout the recruitment process. The process was designed to place an optimal number of women into the Greek community. Women interested in joining any Greek organization have a much higher chance to be placed when compared to a woman who only wants to join a specific Greek organization. When a woman enters the recruitment process with a preconceived notion that sorority "ABC" is the best, most popular, or the only choice for her then she intentionally prefers this sorority above all others. Once again, this approach will substantially diminish the likelihood of receiving a bid to that or another organization on campus.
Not all women receive their number one choice, but we rarely observe these same women being disappointed with their resulting experience as sorority members at Gettysburg. The benefit of Greek membership, particularly those identified by the institution, are evident in all of our organizations on campus.
It's also important to note that sorority recruitment events do not involve men or alcohol and are closely monitored by the Office of Greek Organizations, local alumni, and (in some cases) a representative from the inter/national organization.
Please feel free to contact the Office of Student Activities & Greek Life with any questions about the recruitment process or questions about the Greek Organizations on campus.