As winter sorority recruitment commences, Epsilon Kappa Theta sorority is undergoing an informal recruitment process with two “shake-out” events on Jan. 11th and 20th. Theta first announced the decision to withdraw from formal recruitment last April, and fall recruitment marked the first time in recent years that the sorority did not participate in the formal Panhellenic Council recruitment process.
Theta decided to continue only hosting “shake-out” events after a positive experience in the fall, president Emily Reeves ’15 said.
“We talked to our ’17s who joined and its so much more casual and less stressful, and I could actually enjoy meeting people,” she said. “Everyone who walked in the door was interested and polite. We don’t have to worry about rudeness violations like other houses have to.”
These two events, spaced out to accommodate formal recruitment, will be the only way in which potential new members can receive a bid to join the sorority.
For Theta members, the main impetus for the change was to make recruitment a more “genuine and enjoyable process” for both prospective and current sisters, Reeves said.
In the past, Theta has offered the “shake-out” option along with the formal recruitment process, but after convening with Theta’s Standards Committee last spring, the sorority decided to hold solely “shake-out” events.
During the informal recruitment process, which was first implemented fall term, the majority of the 32 girls who were offered bids accepted them, Reeves said last fall.
The first event this term occurred on Sunday, and Reeves said that although the turnout was slightly lower than during the fall events, she was still happy with the bids that were handed out.
“We’re looking to grow, but not to grow too much because we like being small,” she said. “We think it makes for a better sorority.”
Prospective new members can attend the event for however long they want, with prospective members staying from 15 minutes to over 3 hours, Reeves said.
Julie Solomon ’17 said she shook out last fall because she liked the high level of interaction during the events.
“I think we’re all about empowering women, and so a lot of the policy we do was about trying to have more real conversations and not just superficial exchanges,” Solomon said. “We care about how women interact and how they’re treated.”
Solomon also said that she enjoyed how quick and casual the event was. Rather than going through a multi-day process, she attended one of the events for only 20 minutes and was then able to go to Theta meetings that week.
Panhell vice president of public relations Jessica Ke ’15 said that Theta is still involved with every other aspect of Panhell, and that the recruitment changes were supported by the organization.
“We discussed it with them ahead of time and all of the other house presidents, so Panhell and other sorority presidents are very much in support of Theta doing shakeouts.”
The remaining seven sororities are not considering informal recruitment at this time, Ke said.
Delta Delta Delta sorority president Camila Vigdor ’15 said in an email that Tri-Delt needs to continue doing rush according to the Panhellenic regulations due to the mandate of the national organization.
Theta is able to implement its own process because it is a local sorority.
In order to attend the “shake-out” events, potential new members are required to attend a Greek Letter Organization and Societies hazing prevention education session along with a Dartmouth Bystander Intervention overview session.
Potential new members are able to go through the formal recruitment process in addition to attending the “shake-out” events. The offer of a bid from Theta will not interfere with the formal recruitment process.
Solomon said she thinks that the new process gives women more control over the rush process.
“The problem is women don’t really have a say in their own destiny,” she said. “I know a lot of girls who joined Theta wanted to be in a local. You just have more say in your own future.”
Representatives from Alpha Phi sorority, Alpha Xi Delta sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, Kappa Delta sorority, Kappa Delta Epsilon sorority and Sigma Delta sorority did not respond to request for comment by press time.
