By Emily Fisher and Brandon Cruz

The University of Nevada’s Fraternity and Sorority Life, a community of 32 Greek organizations, seeks to promote a unified community of integrity, character, and cultural diversity on campus.

They promote values like scholarship, service, unity, leadership development and experience.

Many students are interested in joining Greek life, but may not know where to get started.

During the first few weeks of the new school year, some of the Greek organizations participate in a formal recruitment process. The Interfraternity Council, the Multicultural Greek Council, and the Panhellenic Council, more commonly known as sororities, all recruit new members in different ways during the fall and spring semesters. The PHC is more commonly associated with the traditional, week-long recruitment events.

Informational events have already been taking place all around campus: from GO Fest to Cookouts in front of the student union, there has been no shortage of information or excitement. The process of recruitment can still seem daunting.

This is News You Can Use with a guide to recruitment.

Sororities

For the Panhellenic council, primary recruitment is in the Fall. This year, recruitment officially starts on Monday, Sept. 11.

How to get involved

Women who want to join a sorority first need to fill out an online application that asks them general questions about their academic and personal life. The only requirement is to maintain a 2.75 GPA, and freshman entering college are required to have a 3.0 from high school. Once the application is accepted, women begin the formal process of recruitment.

Recruitment orientation is on Monday, Sept. 11, at the Joe Crowley Student Union. At orientation women who have signed up for recruitment will be receiving all the necessary information to move forward into the week, an information booklet and be placed in their recruitment groups with a designated counselor.

How it works

“Recruitment is a mutual selection process, meaning that women rank the chapters they visited at the end of each night. Every woman going through recruitment has a schedule specific to her — every experience is unique!” said Emilia Kinel, the Vice President of Membership for the Panhellenic council.

Recruitment week is divided into three different nights with a different theme: sisterhood, philanthropy, and preference. Sisterhood is the first round, and this is an opportunity for each woman going through recruitment to become acquainted with each chapter. Philanthropy night comes next, and focuses on the philanthropic aspects of each chapter, as well as the values they uphold. Preference night is meant to be very special for the women going through recruitment, giving all a chance to experience the more emotional side of joining a sorority, as well as getting a glimpse into the traditions and rituals of the chapters they have been invited back to.

Bid Day

After a busy three days of recruitment is Bid Day, where women who have been selected officially join the sorority.

“Bid day is when women are able to celebrate the start of their new journey with their new sisters!” said Kinel.

Fraternities

With the first week of classes coming to a close, students are beginning to settle into the daily life of a college student, starving, both for food and extracurricular activities to get into. There are numerous ways to get involved on campus, one of which is joining a fraternity. Try not to have any angst or worries about joining a fraternity, getting into the membership intake process for most is pretty straight forward.

There are two separate councils to look at when attempting to join a fraternity: the Multicultural Greek Council and the Interfraternity Council. The Multicultural Greek Council is where there are smaller tight knit brotherhoods, usually with a cultural preference, however none of these chapters is exclusive to only one group of people. The Interfraternity Council generally has larger chapters, who usually have a chapter house of some sorts.

The Interfraternity Council does not have anymore council-wide recruitment events to attend, but that is not a problem because there are still ways to get into contact with them. The best way to still get into contact with the Interfraternity Council is via the Nevada fraternity and sorority life website. Here they have a registration form for potential new members to fill out so they can further disseminate information about chapters’ individual recruitment events.

After registering there are still a couple of ways to actively attempt to get in contact with the fraternities within IFC. Some chapters will more than likely be tabling the next couple of weeks in the Joe Gateway Plaza or Hilliard Plaza, which is an opportune time to meet some brothers of these organizations. If tabling doesn’t pan out, attempt to find their members around campus wearing their organization’s letters and ask them personally about their recruitment events. If all else fails, head to the Fraternity and Sorority Life office located next to Manzanita Lake.

The Multicultural Greek Council is a lot like the Interfraternity Council as far as autonomy over recruitment. MGC does have one council wide recruitment event Monday, Sept. 4, at 12 p.m. on the KC Lawn. All fraternities and sororities in MGC should be there tabling and cooking food for potential new members and the Nevada community. Following MGC’s last council -wide event, just as IFC, the fraternities that create the MGC coalition should be tabling for the next two weeks to further garner interest into their organizations. MGC members will also be wearing their individual letters around campus and are more than willing to speak with any potential new members about chapter specific recruiting events. But again, if all else fails, the Fraternity and Sorority Life office is a useful resource in further inquiring about certain chapters’ recruitment events.

“Fraternity and Sorority Life is a community, a family, a support system, and a home all made up of brothers and sisters from different organizations. Although we wear different Greek letters across our chest, all of our founders had a similar goal: to create a home for college students who could impact the world,” said Alicia Cauthen the Panhellenic president.

Emily Fisher can be reached at efisher@sagebrush.unr.edu and on Twitter @NevadaSagebrush. Brandon Cruz can be reached at bcruz@sagebrush.unr.edu and on Twitter @brandon_cruz23.