Eliza Dieck, Opinions Editor
Another “Shake Day” has come and gone. Sewanee students scrambled to their organizations, donned their organizations’ jerseys and frolicked on the Domain until the sun went down. This Easter semester, the nineteen sororities and fraternities welcomed their new members to the flourishing Sewanee Greek community during the University’s version of Bid Day. Shake Day was a resounding success; however, the same cannot be said about the recruitment process.
After the chaos of Shake Day faded, I began reflecting on the recruitment process. After looking closely upon the events during recruitment in February, one cannot ignore the blatant disparities between fraternities and sororities on Sewanee’s campus. As Arcadians, we tell prospective students that they have plenty of time to get to know our Greek organizations before committing to one because, unlike most SEC schools, formal recruitment occurs in the spring. 68% of the student body is affiliated with a Greek organization, and 57% of these students belong to the Order of the Gown. Students often claim our Greek community is just “different.”
The Sewanee Greek Council is comprised of the Inter-Sorority Council (ISC) and the Inter-Fraternity Council (IFC). One might think the Sewanee Greek Council enforces uniform rules and regulations about the qualifications a Sewanee student must possess to participate in recruitment. However, President of ISC Claire Damare (C ‘26) stated, “The SC and FC do not collaborate on these rules. As our voting process to ratify recruitment rules is separate and differs from the Fraternity Council.” She also mentioned that these rules “are not made each year, they are just referenced.” In summary, ISC and IFC have distinct “rules of recruitment.”
The primary rule of ISC recruitment stated that in order to participate in sorority recruitment, the student must possess a GPA of 2.35 or higher. However, in order to participate in fraternity recruitment, a student must only be in academic “good standing.” Students in good standing “have earned up to 35 semester hours in residence in college (that is, not counting examination credit) must have a cumulative GPA of at least 1.85 and a semester GPA of at least 1.0.” The minimum GPA required for fraternity recruitment was 0.5 less than the requirement for sorority recruitment.
CeCe Yarbrough (C ’26) volunteered as a rho chi wherein she guided a small group of students through the sorority recruitment process. I selectively chose the word “volunteer” because there was a rumor that rho chis for fraternity recruitment were promised payment for their participation in the form of “flex dollars.” Although rho chis had the same responsibilities and assignments during recruitment week, only the fraternity rho chis were supposedly promised compensation.
Once Yarbrough and her fellow sorority rho chis became aware of this discrepancy, they began asking questions. Claire Damare explained that ISC “intended to give them a gift at the end of recruitment for all of their hard work. However, we never intended to pay them as we are not able to “employ” anyone, and that would change the dynamics of the rho chi position.” Although this was a mere rumor, the student body was not surprised at the notion that the rho chis for fraternity recruitment would be paid while sorority rho chis were not.
In a Student Government Association (SGA) meeting on January 21, the representatives discussed these unfair discrepancies. Students have also raised concerns about how leaders are selected for Sewanee’s governing Greek councils. Unlike most leadership organizations at Sewanee, the student body does not vote for these representatives. Rather, they are selected by Head of Greek Life Donald Abels.
Fourteen students did not receive a bid during the sorority recruitment process. This is often referred to as “falling through.” On the other hand, fraternity recruitment rules allow students to receive unlimited “bids.” This statistic does not account for the students who were incapable of participating in sorority recruitment while students with lower GPAs were allowed to participate in fraternity recruitment. Elizabeth Slade (C’ 28) stated that two of her friends were unable to participate in sorority recruitment last spring because of their GPAs. However, she noted that they would have had the opportunity to participate in fraternity recruitment due to the differing GPA requirements. This situation was not unique. Slade claimed that the fraternity recruitment process is “more lenient and overall, easier.”
The “About Greek Life” page on the Sewanee Greek Life website states their priorities: advocacy, health and safety and capacity building. The advocacy column states that “Greek Life designs comprehensive, value-added experiences to advocate for meaningful student experiences while meeting the ever-changing needs of the fraternity and sorority community.”
Apparently, the “ever-changing needs” of the fraternities includes a lower GPA requirement than sororities. Students who are seeking an affiliation with a sorority must have a higher GPA than students seeking to participate in fraternities because after all, as Sewanee seemingly believes, boys will be boys.
When asked in an email to comment on the disparity between sorority and fraternity recruitment, Abels declined to comment and referred The Purple to speak with ISC.