Miami University's 175-year tradition of Greek life lives on as nearly 2,000 students registered for sorority and fraternity recruitment.
"(The recruitment process) is going very well so far," said April Robles, director of the Cliff Alexander Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life and Leadership.
According to Robles, 1,183 women registered for recruitment this year.
This is comparable to the number of women signed up for 2008 recruitment-which the Dec. 7, 2007 issue of The Student reported was 1,016 by that point, before registration closed.
Of those registered, 967 returned to campus for the recruitment process, with the rest dropping out or being disqualified due to grades.
"I think it's going very well," said Ali Cook, vice president of recruitment for the Panhellenic Association (Panhel). "We've heard positive feedback from girls going through the process. I feel really positive about it right now."
Hoping to make the process easier, men were able to register online this year for fraternity recruitment, according to Robles.
"In the past we hadn't had men register online," Robles said.
Robles said more than 600 men are currently registered online and this number is similar to recruitment numbers in the past.
"The last time they kept statistics was in 2006 and they had a total of 715 men register," Robles said.
This year presented several new challenges to the recruitment process, including Panhel raising its minimum GPA requirement for new recruits this year.
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"Initial cuts were higher because we raised the GPA to 2.6," Cook said.
This is an increase from last year's GPA requirement of 2.3.
According to Robles, just over 100 women were unable to meet the new GPA requirement, compared with 75 women last year.
"Overall, the changes have worked out positively," Robles said.
Another issue that affected recruitment registration this year was the new on-campus living requirement for sophomores.
Living in a fraternity house is the only exception to the mandatory on-campus living requirement for sophomore men next year.
Another new aspect of recruitment was the requirement for all potential new members to sororities to wear white Greek Life T-shirts to open house.
"We wanted to take away the nervousness of the first days of recruitment," Cook said. "It's comforting when everyone is wearing the same thing you are. You feel like you're in the right place. It's really just to enforce that sororities are looking for girls with great personalities."
Cook said she felt that the T-shirts were a great success.
"I heard great feedback from recruits, active members and parents," Cook said.
Cook said she thinks the recruitment process went well, despite the changes.
"I think it's going very well," Cook added. "I hope people will stick it out and find where they belong."
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