This weekend, Grand Valley State University will host one of the biggest events of the year, which also serves as one of the most important to the Panhellenic society: fall sorority recruitment. With recruitment starting Friday, Sept. 19, hundreds of girls across campus will come together to find their new homes by rushing a sorority.

Since the beginning of the school year, the sororities on campus have been working hard to drum up girls’ interest in rushing. Events hosted through the Panhellenic Association like Meet the Greeks and Panhellenic in the City, as well as tabling Back to School Bash and Campus Life Night, aim to give girls a chance to ask questions and learn more about Greek life and what it has to offer.

“It’s cool to see all the chapters’ variety of girls all together,” said Esther Philip, the vice president of recruitment for Panhellenic Association.

Philip plays a large role in planning recruitment. Though she says it’s stressful, she loves her position because she truly believes in the Greek system and what it can do for somebody. She says she is driven by the passion to help other women.

Recruitment is open for girls of all ages and class standings. This year is projected to be the largest recruitment that GVSU has ever seen, which can easily be attributable to an increase in the university’s student population.

Recruitment weekend takes place in four “rounds,” and officially ends on Monday, Sept. 22 with bid day. The rounds are the information round, philanthropy round, house tours and preference round.

Information round, taking place on Friday, includes all nine of the sororities and gives girls the opportunity to learn each sorority’s general information and values.

Philanthropy round, on Saturday, will introduce the girls rushing to the philanthropies of seven of the sororities of their choice, and they’ll get to make a craft that will be given to that organization.

For the first time, these two rounds will be taking place off campus. Recruitment used to take place in the Kirkhof Center but has outgrown the space and will be moving to LifeStream in Allendale.

“We just outgrew it,” said Erin Schneider, president of Alpha Sigma Alpha. “It will be interesting, but I think it will be cool.”

House tours and preference round both will take place on Sunday, Sept. 21. For the house tours, girls will get to choose five sororities to tour their houses and learn more about their sisterhood.

Jackie Rey, the president of Alpha Sigma Tau, is excited to show the girls rushing their new house in Grand Village.

“I’m excited to show (the new girls) how we want our house to be,” Rey said. “It’s definitely brought our sisterhood closer together.”

The final preference round will have the girls choose two sororities. From there, they will have an inside look at the sorority’s rituals as well as learn what sisterhood means to those sororities on a deeper level.

After the four rounds, each girl will choose which sorority they are most interested in, and on Monday, they will see if that interest is reciprocated.

Recruitment ends with Bid Day, an event where the girls rushing find out if they have gotten a bid from the sorority that they chose.

“Seeing these girls so excited, then seeing what they do in their chapter is so rewarding,” Philip said. “Seeing the growth of these women after joining a sorority… and Bid Day is the start of it all.”

Philip, Schneider and Rey were all in agreement that Bid Day is one of their favorite parts about the weekend because they get to see the girls that rushed so happy and excited after being welcomed into their new sisterhood.

After Bid Day, all of the new members will enter a ‘new member period,’ which differs chapter to chapter, but they will learn a deeper history about their sorority and have a chance to get more involved in their sisterhood through service, philanthropy or leadership positions.

“It’s like nothing you’ve ever been through,” said Schneider. “Nothing compares to recruitment weekend.”

Philip said that she never thought she would join a sorority, but once she was at college, she saw how involved they were and really fell in love with that opportunity to have that leadership experience as well as being a part of something bigger than herself.

“Being part of an organization is really important, whether it’s Greek or not,” Schneider said.

Girls can register to rush until Thursday, Sept. 18 at 3 p.m. There will be an orientation session that evening to prepare the girls for the weekend that’s to come.

For more information about Greek Life, visit gvsu.edu/greeklife.

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