Navigating online components, students rushed on-campus sororities and fraternities at levels similar to before the pandemic after recruitment took a major hit last year amid COVID-19.
For the second year in a row, on-campus sorority and fraternity rush has had a virtual component. Spring semester rush was held completely virtual for sororities, while fraternities held a mix of virtual and in-person events due to concerns surrounding COVID-19, according to the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life. On-campus fraternities and sororities saw increases in registration during spring 2022 rush compared to spring 2021.
In spring 2022, 533 students registered for virtual Panhellenic Council sorority recruitment, up slightly from the 448 registering in spring 2021. The numbers did not reach pre-pandemic levels, however, which saw 556 students registering in spring 2020. Penn’s Interfraternity Council does not track registration numbers for its fraternities, Jessica Ryan, Penn’s Director of Fraternity & Sorority Leadership Community, told The Daily Pennsylvanian in an emailed statement on Feb. 16.
Recruitment for Penn’s Intercultural Greek Council is ongoing, and finalized registration or membership numbers are not available yet, Ryan told the DP.
"Panhellenic Council saw decreases in registration numbers for 2021 Primary Recruitment in January and didn't quite catch up to 2020 numbers in 2022,” Ryan wrote on Feb. 16. “However, through continuous open bidding or COB [sic] Panhellenic total number of new members has stayed consistent in the spring semesters for the last three years.”
For Panhel sororities, the completely virtual rush process began on Jan. 9 and ended on Jan. 14.
College senior Christmas Cotter, the vice president of Panhel recruitment, said that she made the decision to conduct sorority rush in a hybrid format even before the University announced the delay of in-person classes. Cotter explained that it was easier for her to move rush online once the University announced a delay to in-person classes in spring 2022 because “[she] had a model to go off of from last year.”
For IFC fraternities, the recruitment process included a series of virtual and in-person events from Jan. 20 to Feb. 2.
"Interfraternity Council chapters took in less members in 2020-2021 academic year but this Spring 2022 recruitment, IFC is already seeing great increases from the spring prior and are continuing to rise closer to the 2020 number," Ryan told the DP on Feb. 16.
IFC fraternities held spring rush in a hybrid format because it followed students’ return to campus, whereas Panhel sorority recruitment took place when classes were still online, according to Cotter.
College first year Kemi Ogunyankin said that the virtual sorority rush process allowed her to participate while traveling.
“I thought it would be a little bit awkward with Zoom, but I think it worked well,” she said. “It was just less pressure.”
However, Ogunyankin also emphasized that an in-person rush process would have allowed students to understand and learn more about chapters.
“I know a lot of people did love how the pressure was taken off with virtual recruitment,” Cotter said about one of the benefits of online rush. However, she said that she “thinks it definitely was hard for some girls to connect online.”
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