The Greek Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Association brought 1,250 students to this year’s spring recruitment events. It was a slight decrease in attendance form last year, but Matt Abdifar, president of the IFC, said the numbers don’t matter.

‘I never really care about the numbers,’ he said. ‘It depends on the class of kids. It doesn’t really depend on anything other than that.’

The Panhellenic Association brought in 700 students, a 100-person decrease from last year, while the IFC had 550 students, 50 fewer from last year.

Emily Thompson, president of the Panhellenic Association, said she had been nervous about the potential effects of the recession on recruitment attendance.

‘It was a question for us at first,’ Thompson said. ‘But since there are 700 women going through recruitment currently, I don’t think it has been as big a factor as we had originally thought it was.’

This year’s theme is the ‘The Panhellenic Experience.’

Thompson said the Panhellenic Association is planning on adding sororities in the future, but that it wouldn’t be possible for at least three years.

The Panhellenic Association kickoff was Jan. 30, and spring recruitment lasts two weeks. Thompson said there would be about 600 women at the end of the recruitment process this Sunday, when participants will receive a bid from their respective sororities.

‘It’s not just a good time and parties and the stereotypical things that people on the outside only see,’ Thompson said. ‘There’s more to it that people on the inside only.’

For IFC, recruitment began Monday night with a kickoff and information meeting in Goldstein Auditorium in Schine Student Center. The event was mandatory for current members and students hoping to join the greek chapters.

Students had to register for recruitment and get a stamp from each chapter representative. If students didn’t receive a stamp from every representative, they were dropped from recruitment.

‘It’s an opportunity for enhancing your college experience,’ Abdifar said. ‘I say it’s the best decision I made in my life because it opened up a lot of doors for me. Even if someone ends up not joining a fraternity, it’s an advantage because they get to meet other people from their freshman class. They also get to network with chapter members. Everyone’s in it for different reasons.’

Abdifar introduced the next IFC president, Brian Smith, who will succeed Abdifar once recruitment is over this Friday.

Abdifar will be a student representative on an expansion committee in the next few weeks that will discuss adding new chapters to SU’s greek community.

blbump@syr.edu

Published on February 3, 2009 at 12:00 pm