Freshmen are no longer allowed to join Greek Life in their first semester, as a result of the university’s new Deferred Recruitment Policy.
The change now requires all potential bidders to have at least 12 college credits and a minimum GPA of 2.5. Previously, students did not need to meet any academic requirements except those set forth by the individual sorority or fraternity.
Transfer students are unaffected by the policy, as long as the policy requirements are met.
“This lets us evaluate them and it allows them to keep up their grades,” said Dan Roper, the marshal for the fraternity Pi Lambda Phi, and the president of the Temple University Greek Association.
“Greek Life has a lot of responsibilities,” Roper, a junior sports and recreation management major, said. “There’s social events, charity work … and we care about our members and have high expectations from our new members and existing brothers.”
Julian Aldinger, a junior risk management insurance and finance major and Pi Lambda Phi’s spokesman, said the policy will bring about a “positive effect.”
“It will help weed out the kids who don’t really want to join, and then the ones who really want to join will stand out,” she added.
Megan Patrick, Temple’s program coordinator for fraternities and sororities, said the change will greatly reduce recruitment in the fall, but increase recruitment in the spring.
“We now have Greek Life doing what’s called 365 Recruitment, which is them working on recruits throughout the year instead of all at once,” Patrick said. “We have different events going on, like our ‘Meet the Greeks’ and others, depending on the council.”
Councils are larger organizations for fraternities and sororities which can determine recruitment dates and quotas.
“Some sororities can only have a certain number of new members in a year,” Patrick said.
Recruitment dates for different fraternities and sororities will remain unaffected by the new policy, but the various councils maintain their different processes.
The Interfraternity Council and sororities in the Panhellenic Association hold their rushing period over set days during the year, with the IFC taking nine days and the Panhellenic Association taking seven. The Panhellenic Association holds its rushing the first week before classes start in January for the spring semester.
“If you can’t make it that week, you have to wait until the next time,” Patrick said.
Conversely, the Multicultural Greek Council and the National Pan-Hellenic Council do not induct their members to the fraternities or sororities in such a formal process.
“The MGC and NPHC determine their own recruitment dates,” Patrick explained. “We just ask that they notify us of when those are.”
According to the Student Activities website, MGC fraternities and sororities have the choice to either “host a Rush, General Information Meeting, or other informational session for potential new members to attend, while NPHC fraternities and sororities participate in an “intake process.” That process allows existing members to select potential candidates at their own discretion.
“This [policy] is only going to change the larger recruitment from the fall to the spring,” Patrick said, explaining that Deferred Recruitment doesn’t change the dates.
“I see this as a positive effect,” Patrick added. “First-year students have the opportunity to transition, set up classes and really decide if they want to join this organization for life.”
Julie Christie can be reached at julie.christie@temple.edu or on Twitter @ChristieJules.
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