Fraternities and potential new members gathered at the University Center Theatre and third floor for their fall recruitment last week with a different recruitment process from former years.
Unlike previous recruitment years, University of Memphis fraternities made a schedule for potential new members to meet them on campus.
Sally Parish, associate dean of the Office of Student Leadership and Involvement, said the process should help potential members see all aspects of a fraternity.
“In the past, potential new members may have only engaged with one chapter instead of having the opportunity to meet all of our outstanding organizations,” Parish said. “We had more men engage in this year’s process than we had in quite some time.”
In previous years, fraternities would host recruitment events, like tailgates and cookouts, at their houses. Anyone interested in the organization would attend to mingle with members.
Bobby Smith, a sophomore public relations major and member of Zeta Beta Tau, said the system helps men going through rush know all their options.
“This year’s process was designed to be more structured, to provide the men going through the system a chance to meet every fraternity,” Smith said.
Smith said a large benefit from this process is that smaller chapters are granted more exposure. However, it could also hurt fraternities trying to colonize, or start up, at the U of M.
“I think it is going to be very difficult for new fraternities to come to the University of Memphis and gain members while operating through this system,” Smith said. “I was very happy that this system went a lot better than it did last spring. There was a lot more structure around the actual process.”
Brooks Daugherty, a sophomore finance major and member of Kappa Sigma at the U of M, said formal recruitment has a positive side to it, but it also has a negative side as well.
“The only positive I see to it is that everybody sees everybody,” Daugherty said. “With informal rush, we were having recruitment events all the time, but we actually got to meet the guys and get to know them before giving them a bid.”
Daugherty said informal recruitment helped fraternities decide who they wanted, and the potential members could see how they fit with that fraternity.
Alex Tate, a junior finance and accounting major and recruitment chair for ZBT, said he was nervous about the process and how it would portray ZBT.
“I liked that rush week allowed us to have an opportunity to meet all the new recruits,” Tate said. “I think that promotes both new guys being able to form their own opinions on every fraternity and also general relations, as the process is not as segmented and isolated as it was.”
Although the formal recruitment process could prevent fraternities from showing off their unique aspects, it does allow smaller fraternities to meet men they may have not met before. Tate said the process could have been better.
“I do, however, disapprove of the manner in which we did formal recruitment with no regulations on amount of bids given,” Tate said. “We do not have any kind of COB (continuous open bidding) period after rush week. I think that promotes a feast or famine mindset among the fraternities.”
Tate said there were benefits of the formal rush were there and it helped ZBT get publicity.
“As a smaller chapter, our overall outreach is definitely smaller than some other fraternities,” Tate said. “There’s a great amount to gain from having met everyone going to join a fraternity. I know for a fact the men who accepted bids from us, we probably would not have met half of them if not for formal recruitment.”
