Inside Look: Sorority Recruitment During a Pandemic

            The Panhellenic Council at UWG is allowing sorority chapters to hold in-person events when it comes to Spring Recruitment. Despite COVID-19 challenges, chapters are still getting a chance to have events for potential new members during the spring semester. 

            The Panhellenic Council and UWG have been hard at work to come up with ways that allow their student organizations to plan events, while still following COVID-19 guidelines that  ensure students safety. The Panhellenic Council is an umbrella organization of different women’s fraternities throughout the United States and Canada. Each group is a social, philanthropic, greek-letter society of college women and alumni.

            “As far as COVID-19 goes, mainly we’re focusing on what the university’s guidelines are which directly come from the state,” said the Panhellenic Council President, Halee Hembree. “We’re working hard to make sure that we are complying with those guidelines, as well as giving all the sororities and potential students wanting to join the chapters the best experience possible.”

            Each sorority is required to wear masks when around each other and potential members that could join their chapter. Also, every person involved with spring recruitment is encouraged to socially distance themselves from one another. One of the main concerns of many potential members and members of the Panhellenic community is allowing Bid Day to be in person.

Bid Day is the day where potential members are formally invited to join certain chapters. The Panhellenic Council has encouraged chapters to offer a virtual Bid Day option for those who are not comfortable attending in-person. The in-person Bid Day however, is required to adhere to COVID-19 guidelines and precautions required by the Panhellenic Council and UWG. This allows chapter members of sororities at UWG, as well as the new members just invited to join the chapters on campus to have a Bid Day experience that is considered as normal as possible even during a pandemic.

            “Even during such a weird time, you still get a sense of family, familiarity, and home by joining a sorority,” said the Vice President of Recruitment for the Panhellenic Council, Alyssa Pearce. “You still make those connections with the girls in your sorority by seeing a familiar face in a class and even hanging out with each other on your own time. Being in a sorority, regardless of if we’re in the middle of a pandemic or if we aren’t, I believe it is one of the best opportunities that colleges offer students to be a part of.”

            The main concern for new students joining a sorority or participating in an organization is if they will be able to have a good experience and also be safe. UWG has prepared guidelines in order for students to be comfortable experiencing not only greek life but any other organization on campus.