USU bucks nationwide trend of sororities' decline

By Ariel Wade

December 10, 2007 | Nationally sorority recruitment numbers are going down, but this decline is countered at Utah State University, where sorority numbers have been on the rise since 2005.

USU Panhellenic President Alexis Lear said, "USU used to have a bigger Greek system with more houses and bigger chapters, but it has been declining for years and is now finally on the rise again."

Lear said the rise in recruitment is due to a revision of the system. The program moved from a fully structured program to a partially structured one.

Lear said the partially structured program allows girls to more freely explore the houses they are interested in, without being forced to pursue houses they are less interested in.

Panhellenic Recruitment Chair Sandy Hansen said, "We used to have a more formal style of recruitment with scheduled tours and parties at the houses and during that it was more demanding on the schedules of those girls interested."

According to Hansen, this year's program was better organized, had bigger campuswide involvement and affiliated more with Connections, the freshman orientation program, and other organizations.

Kappa Delta Alumni and USU's Kappa Delta Chapter Advisory Board Chair Judy Lawton said, "Greek life is not robust on our campus. . . . It is a hidden opportunity at Utah State."

USU's three main sororities, Kappa Delta, Chi Omega and Alpha Chi Omega, are among the 26 strongest national sororities and are thriving nationally despite the national decline in incoming members.

The National Panhellenic Conference reported total new membership at 1.63 million in 1993 and was down to 1,.59 million in 2005. The conference reported steady total membership to be related to retention of initiated members rather than to incoming new members.

Purdue University, for example, reported 31 total pledges campu wide in 2001, a steady decline from 584 in 1998.

Lawton said it is her impression that sororities have gotten stronger and declined, and gotten stronger and declined, over different decades.

According to Lawton, these fluctuations in the sorority involvement are due to economical and historical factors such as war. Right now on USU's campus although the recruitment numbers are on a rise, "Greeks" are only 2 percent of the student population. According to Lear, although the Greek system is a small percentage of the student population, they are recognized:"If you said Greeks they know who we are but if you asked what we do they wouldn't know."

Lear added, "Greek reputation is really mixed. As a whole we help out a lot and have people really involved but people hear negative things and remember the negative over the positive."

This mixed reputation hurts the recruitment numbers, Lear said. When USU sororities recruit they tend to recruit the least common members of the student population.

"We need to start targeting 95 percent of the student population instead of 5 percent."

Lear said sororities need to focus recruitment on service, leadership and grades.

"We need to look for those in the higher echelon." Lawton said, "USU sororities need to reach out to sororities on other campuses of our size and find out what they do to attract their potential new members and get advice for recruitment activities."

The current formal recruitment system involves three official days. The first day is for house tours and general information, the second day is usually a service night where potential new members get a chance to see the leadership, academic and service aspects of Greek life, and the third is a preference night where favored houses are experienced on a more intimate level.

Hansen said that next year recruitment could improve with better organization and better communication between the houses.

According to Lawton, the campus and community needs to be made more aware of the sororities, what they do and what they stand for.

The Greek system produces people who are more likely to graduate, get higher grades, succeed and give back because they learn a sense of relationship and connection to things they involve themselves in as well as a sense of responsibility to the community and giving back.

A U.S. Government study shows that more than 70 percent of all those who join a fraternity/sorority graduate, while fewer than 50 percent of all non-fraternity/sorority persons graduate, 85 percent of the Fortune 500 executives belong to a Greek organization and over 85 percent of the student leaders on some 730 campuses are involved in the Greek community.

Lear said that once girls know what Greek life is all about it sells itself because it is a "priceless experience that reaps benefits far beyond college."

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