Greek Bid Day

AU Greek Life Sees Great Success with Fall Recruitment

Published on Sep. 25, 2013
Ashland University

9/26/13 ASHLAND, Ohio – Ashland University’s Greek Life community recently wrapped up one of the most successful recruitment seasons in recent history. The sorority community saw a record number of women register for the process and, while the fraternity community did not set a record, they more than doubled the number of registrations from a year ago.

Jacob Miller, president of the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity stated, “As a junior and president of Phi Delta Theta, I have helped with recruitment twice now and witnessed it firsthand my freshman year.  I have yet to see such an interest in formal recruitment like I have this year. To my knowledge, this year is the highest numbers that have been recorded for formal recruitment in a long while.”

Such a vast increase in numbers is being attributed to both chapter involvement, as well as a reorganization of the recruitment schedules and philosophy on the part of the Interfraternity and Panhellenic Councils.

“This year we really wanted to stress maintaining a comfortable environment when dealing with potential new members,” said Christopher Manthey, president of the Interfraternity Council. “We restructured our philosophy towards the process, and set out to center our plan around guys really wanting to go through the process. In turn, I believe our retention rates will increase, and we already saw our ‘no show’ rates decrease.”

Zac Hoffman, the recruitment chair for Tau Kappa Epsilon, shared the same sentiment, stating “I definitely think that we hit recruitment harder this year than we have in any previous year in recent history. On the whole, Greek Life was more organized, more positive and, most importantly I think, more unified.”

Following such a significant event, the Greek Life program has begun to receive praise and support from University officials.  

“Students involved in sororities and fraternities at Ashland University have always been leaders in more than Greek life. Virtually all are involved in a breadth of other leadership roles including religious life, recreational services, residence life, the arts and, of course, community service,” said Sue Heimann, vice president of Student Affairs. “As a University, we are deeply proud of the positive influence of Greek members in the student community. The values of each chapter reflect the values of Ashland University -- scholarship, leadership, service and character formation.”

Laura Kane, director of Greek Life, commented on the sorority numbers for this year.

“A record number of women, 163, registered for sorority recruitment. The open house pool ended up at 142, we had 21 ‘no shows’ which is significantly less than in past years,” Kane said. “With 95 women completing the sorority recruitment process and joining sororities, we retained 67 percent of the open house pool, which is an increase from previous years.”

Kane also noted the numbers for the fraternity community.

“The number of men registered for recruitment was 57, over double from the previous year. With a new, more flexible recruitment model, men were able to attend events that fit around their schedule, averaging 30 men at each event,” Kane said.

Ashland University, which has been ranked in the top 200 colleges and universities in U.S. News and World Report’s National Universities category, is a mid-sized, private university conveniently located a short distance from Akron, Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio. Ashland University (www.ashland.edu) values the individual student and offers a unique educational experience that combines the challenge of strong, applied academic programs with a faculty and staff who build nurturing relationships with their students. ###