Recruiting for a new millennium

Cheers rang out around campus Sunday as women stepped off buses and into their new homes following the culmination of this year's sorority recruitment.\nBeginning in mid-November, about 1600 women participate in recruitment each year. Women visit all 19 houses in November, and use Scantron sheets to choose houses of their preference.\nWomen who choose to participate return early from winter break to complete the process. Events began Wednesday with 12-party, when women received a list of 12 or fewer houses to visit based on how the sorority's rankings correlated with their preferences. As the week continued, rushees visited fewer houses during six-party and three-party.\nA mutual selection process is used during recruitment. Women rank chapters based on their preferences, and each chapter uses a system to decide whom they will invite back. Those numbers are then entered into a computer, where listings and party schedules are created.\nFinal decisions were revealed during bid day Sunday, and about 900 women were placed in houses. \n"I think everything went well for recruitment this year," said Panhellenic Association President Jennifer Kerns. "A large amount of women went through and we were able to place the majority of them."\nTo simplify the process, a "no frills" policy for recruitment was enacted last year, handing down rules limiting decorating, singing and attire.\nThe new policy worked well again this year, Kerns said.\n"It was experimental in some respects, in that it was new," she said, "but everyone did a great job using the resources they had to invite women into their chapter and show them what greek life is all about."\nWomen receiving bids will go through a period leading up to initiation, when they will be involved with activities to help them get to know more about their sisters and their chapter.\n"It's a good time for them to really get closer to their pledge sisters and the chapter they've joined and what they stand for," Kerns said. "The culmination is initiation"