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Fraternities and sororities begin spring recruitment

Campus Greek-letter organizations are applying lessons learned during the pandemic as they recruit new members and build community.

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented major challenges for Stanford’s fraternities and sororities – but they have continued to both build community and serve the campus and surrounding area. Now some Greek-letter organizations are applying their experiences over the past several years to new member recruitment.

“We’re really excited to go through this recruitment process,” said Cole Pierce, Class of 2024, president of the InterFraternity Council (IFC), the governing body for 10 of the 12 fraternities on campus. “We have the largest freshman class ever – there’s the potential to get lots of people involved.”

Both the IFC and the Inter-Sorority Council (ISC), the governing body for six of the 10 sororities on campus, are planning innovations to the recruitment process, which for both councils begins with orientation on April 3. The majority of events for ISC will take place the weekend of April 8, culminating in membership offers on April 11. IFC chapters will host events from April 4-11, with invitations to join by April 15.

Multicultural Greek Council organizations, including two sororities and one fraternity, are set to host a variety of events throughout the first few weeks of the quarter. Most events include informational sessions followed by casual gatherings centered around service, community building, and professional development, culminating in final interviews and invitations to join.

Stanford’s Black Greek organizations have a long history of commitment to service and upliftment of the Black community, evidenced by their work during the pandemic. The Fraternity and Sorority Life website offers more information about all governing organizations and chapters.

New opportunities

Many Greek leaders are using the pandemic as an opportunity to try new, meaningful ways to engage with Stanford students.

Recruitment counselors are guides specifically trained to help new members navigate the formal recruitment process of ISC organizations. This practice is one that IFC will adopt this year in an effort to support students interested in finding a community on campus through fraternity.

Both councils are also following the lead of the Multicultural Greek Council and African-American Fraternal and Sororal Association in adopting a values-based recruiting process, using recruiting events to showcase values such as philanthropy and community.

“We’re trying to authentically market who we are and attract individuals that align with our values,” said Rayan Rizvi, Class of 2023, president of the Kappa Alpha fraternity.

The ISC has had an orientation program for potential new members in place for many years and will be conducting a hybrid version to balance in-person community building with COVID-19 safety guidelines. New this year for the ISC is a community-wide diversity panel following new member orientation.

“Through the diversity panel, we’re hoping to allow those who may not have otherwise considered Greek Life to learn from the lived experiences of individuals across multiple organizations,” said Eva Batelaan, class of 2024, president of the ISC.

The IFC is holding a sexual assault awareness and prevention workshop for all potential new members.

“Education surrounding both the development of sexual health and the prevention of sexual violence is a primary initiative within IFC,” Pierce said. “We believe including the sexual assault awareness workshop will provide a basis of understanding to potential members that indvidual chapters can build upon and the inclusion of the topic signals to all potential new members how important this initiative is to the IFC.”

The ISC recruitment process will continue to build on practices adopted during the previous recruitment cycle by featuring two virtual days and one in-person day, including a mandatory no-camera day and a camera-optional day, with the final day moving to in-person.

“Our intention behind holding some virtual events and turning cameras off is to respect COVID regulations and to reduce implicit bias. We want to get to know women for who they are, learn what is meaningful to them, and show how membership in our organization can foster friendship, service, and community,” said Audrey Gorman, Class of 2023, president of Chi Omega.

Pandemic pivots

This recruitment cycle follows two years of pivoting for Greek chapters, whose goal is to build community.

“We had to be creative,” said Daryn Rockett, Class of 2023, president of the Xi Beta Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, the oldest sorority by and for Black women, whose programs thematically range from health and wellness to financial literacy and economic prosperity. “We had to take what we usually do in person and do it in a virtual format because we wanted to make sure that we would be doing our absolute best to keep the community safe.”

Back on campus this year, the chapter has been able to do some in-person programming, though they are still holding virtual service programs. They recently hosted a Dish hike in observation of Pink Goes Red Day to raise awareness about heart disease and promote healthy lifestyles. They also held a virtual shoe drive, collecting 97 pairs of gently used shoes for donation to the Soles4Souls program.

Other organizations have found similar ways to pivot, adapting the format of in-person events to work with the pandemic restrictions.

Chi Omega continued their focus on building community even when members couldn’t be together in person, Gorman said.

“One of the ways we foster community is through regular small group conversations such as career chats with alumnae, mini TED talks where members present something they’re passionate about, and book clubs featuring BIPOC authors,” Gorman said. “We really wanted to keep that going during the pandemic so our sisters could keep having fun and learning from one another.”

Chapters used the same creativity to continue their service work.

“The name of the game is adapting,” said Rizvi. Kappa Alpha has been working with students and teachers in the Ravenswood City School District. They had initially hoped to host class parties at the local middle school, but instead they sent just two members at a time to read to the students, outdoors when possible.

“Students love it because they love interacting with college students,” Rizvi said.

They have also done fundraising for the district. Last quarter they hosted a carnival with competition among the Stanford neighborhoods that raised more than $20,000. They used some of the funds to purchase classroom supplies and gift cards for teachers through the Adopt-a-Teacher program run by the Ravenswood Education Foundation. They also sponsored holiday gifts for 100 district students.

Focus on service

Community service is a major focus for many of the organizations.

“We are a service organization, and our primary concern is doing what we can to aid our community with the resources that we have,” Rockett said.

Service can be directed at the Stanford community or the broader community. The Omicron Chi chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority tries to strike a balance between these two types of service. They collaborated with the chapter at San Jose State University to participate in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s, for example.

On campus, they held an academic fair aimed at Black students, giving Black frosh and sophomores a chance to meet upper class students and talk about majors and careers. The event doubled as a donation drive to collect school supplies to donate to a local school.

“Public service is a huge point of emphasis for our sorority,” said Kaleigh Beacham, Class of 2022, president of the Omicron Chi chapter, of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. The chapter, which now has six members on campus, was reactivated at Stanford in the spring of 2021 after a hiatus during the 2019-2020 academic year. They started with virtual events last spring, such as a reproductive health seminar. “As we came back to campus, it was important to us to make sure we made ourselves visible.”

The Kappa Alpha fraternity has tried to examine how it completes its service work by collaborating with the Haas Center for Public Service, including a joint workshop on principles of effective and ethical service.

“It adds an element of reflection that we normally wouldn’t have,” Rizvi said.

Silver linings

Like other organizations, Lambda Theta Nu Sorority, Inc., a Latina-based sorority, saw many of its usual events, including its annual national conference, disrupted by the pandemic.

They converted some of their traditions, such as their annual winter holiday celebration, to a virtual format — sometimes discovering silver linings.

“Since we were online, we were able to invite our alums,” said Roxana Arjon, Class of  2022, president of Lambda Theta Nu.

They made the same shift for the group’s Latina Youth Leadership Conference, which offers Latina high school students workshops on topics such as self-empowerment and preparing for college. It will take place virtually in April.

“The conference is one that we love doing in person since a lot of the students who come have never been to Stanford before,” Arjon said. But with the conference virtual, it has attracted attendees from a wider area and will include Lambda Theta Nu chapters at other college campuses.

“There are some cons to having it virtually,” Arjon said, “but there are also a lot of benefits.”