By Deborah Muhwezi
Kansas State Collegian
The efforts of the Greek Affairs employees, students and chapter advisers have not gone in vain. The recent changes they made to improve sorority recruitment resulted in an increase in retention, as well as time and money saved for students, staff and volunteers involved in the Sorority Recruitment Week.
“Recruitment went excellently,” said Shawn Eagleburger, assistant director for Greek Affairs. “We started and finished with more women than we ever have at K-State.”
Eagleburger, who is also the primary sorority adviser, said he was impressed with the success of Recruitment Week, which took place August 17-21. Eagleburger and other staff and students changed a few aspects of the week to make it more beneficial, cheaper and less stressful for all those involved, he said.
“We were able to get everything done quicker and concentrate on just a couple of days,” he said. “It’s hard to keep up energy for six days in a row, so if we can do it in four days and keep everyone going, then it’s just better.”
At the end of the week, the sororities were able to offer 525 women membership and retained 86 percent of the women throughout the process, he said. In addition, the price of recruitment for students went down from last year’s expense of $270 to $165 for expenses this year, he said.
“We were able to get more people to join than we ever have in a long time,” he said. “The advantages just really showed through this year.”
Eagleburger said the staff provided vans this year to make transportation around K-State and Manhattan more convenient for the students.
He said the shortened week allowed more summer and family time for the interested women and all those involved in recruitment. Parents were also able to travel on the weekend. Since they didn’t have to take off from work during the week, they saw more girls stay through to the end, he said.
“Our No. 1 interest is to have as many women be asked to as many chapters as possible, and we were able to get more people to join than we have in a long time,” he said.
Jennifer Bantham, senior in elementary education, is a director of recruitment for the Panhellenic Council and said she was very satisfied with the outcome of recruitment week. “Overall, the changes we made made the week go a lot faster,” she said.
Bantham, who is a member of Alpha Chi Omega, said the changes didn’t have a negative effect on recruitment. The number of recruits and members increased because the process was smoother, and the staff and people involved were well-trained. She also stressed how important the Manhattan community was to greek life at K-State.
“The community is the one that we want to help,” she said. “If they see us doing something that they may not approve of, it can put a damper on our greek community.”
As for next year, Eagleburger said Greek Affairs still wants to improve the residence hall stay, travel time, costs, counseling techniques, recruiters, and anything else that needs improvement to increase the numbers.
“We have one of the most successful recruitment weeks, so there’s always things we want to improve and change — that’s going to take the collective community,” he said.
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