ZTA targets juniors and seniors

With colonization well underway, Zeta Tau Alpha — Penn’s newest sorority — is making an effort to target upperclassmen women for recruitment.

ZTA has reached out to student groups through club listervs and the Undergraduate Assembly to promote the sorority, according to Kat Lopez, ZTA traveling leadership consultant.

ZTA targeted student groups with significant upperclassmen involvement.

“Providing prospective upperclassmen with this opportunity is something ZTA seems passionate about,” Office of Student Affairs/ Fraternity Sorority Life Associate Director Stacy Kraus wrote in an e-mail.

The sorority’s biggest allies in recruitment have come from the Greek community.

Sorority and fraternity members recommending friends to ZTA has been very helpful to their cause, Lopez said.

Lopez added that ZTA is “very pleased with the response” they have gotten around campus.

A meet and greet last Thursday evening was one of ZTA’s last open recruitment events before a group of prospective members will be narrowed down.

Joy McKenzie, a College junior who attended the meet and greet, is excited about the opportunities ZTA offers.

“I want to enhance my next year and a half,” she said, adding that “the leadership opportunities a new chapter can afford are really compelling.”

College sophomore Jeanette Elstein, who is rushing ZTA, said she originally didn’t consider joining a sorority.

She was turned off by the stereotype of “cliques” in some sororities and believed that many girls who are involved in sororities have little time for other activities.

However, “since ZTA is recruiting from all classes, I feel they’re going to get people involved in a lot of other things as well,” she said.

The new sorority also puts responsibility on the founding members.

“We have a reputation to establish,” McKenzie said. “I hope it’s the right one.”

Though ZTA is making upperclassmen recruitment a priority, their events and promotions are geared toward all undergraduate women at Penn.

“Sorority chapters look for balance between the classes.,” Kraus wrote. “It helps to ensure that when classes graduate, you have a strong number of members to carry on the group.”

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