The Interfraternity Council is further adjusting its recruiting process this semester to make sure prospective recruits have enough time to learn about each of its chapters.

For the first time, recruitment will start on a Friday and extend an entire week instead of five days. The recruitment expo will also occur Feb. 1, marking the first time it is held at least two weeks before recruitment. The change gives students more time to register for recruitment and fraternities more time to recruit, Sigma Chi President Joe Allam said.

‘The object is to sell yourself to these kids and get them to come here,’ Allam said.

Recruitment will begin Feb. 18 and continue until the chapters bid on future brothers on Feb. 25. Prospective recruits will spend that Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday visiting each of the 18 chapter houses, Allam said.

A computer system will randomly assign a group of about 30 recruits to each Rho Chi, a recruiting chaperone from one of the council’s chapters. Recruiting rules forbid the Rho Chis from wearing their fraternity letters or telling recruits their home fraternity. Each chapter sends three brothers to the team of 54 Rho Chis. Last semester, each chapter sent two Rho Chis, creating a total of 36.

Allam said the changes are necessary to handle this semester’s high volume of students. Because SU restricts freshmen from rushing until their second semester and with the new requirement that prospective recruits visit every chapter house, the fraternities need more Rho Chis and more time to meet the demand.

Instead of the online system used in previous years, recruits will personally pick up their pledge cards in the Schine Student Center. Recruits will bring the cards to one of 18 classrooms on campus to commit to a house. Last semester, recruits picked up their cards at the Martin J. Whitman School of Management.

At least 150 men failed to receive a bid from a chapter last spring, according to a Sept. 23 Daily Orange article. Allam said guiding students to every house could help uncertain recruits secure their bids and benefit fraternities that struggle with recruitment.

Josh Eisenfeld, president of Alpha Epsilon Pi, said the extended recruitment gives fraternities a better chance to choose which recruits they will invite back Thursday, Feb. 24, to determine the next day’s bids.

That extra time comes with a price: Prospective recruits will have only 30 to 40 minutes to stay at a single house. With more than 70 people moving from building to building, Eisenfeld said, the new process will be a challenge for fraternities.

Whereas Rho Chis are trained to deal with many recruits at once, the brothers themselves rely on their existing ability to interact with people, Eisenfeld said. He described the new process as an ‘elementary school field trip’ but said the challenge could be a long-term benefit.

‘The rotation forces us to be quick in what we do,’ he said.

Allam said the changes will give smaller fraternities a better chance to compete for recruits.

‘I think the system is unbiased, to be honest,’ Allam said. ‘It’s a wide-open playing field.’

geclarke@syr.edu

Published on January 26, 2011 at 12:00 pm