Recruitment flawed, but necessary

While most of you were enjoying your rest and relaxation during the last week of break, I was here in Bloomington cooped up with nearly 80 women in a house. For some of you, this may sound like a fantasy; others, maybe torture. I hung signs, blew up balloons and pretended to be a cheerleader for four straight days. I laughed and I cried. Not only did I talk to all the women in my house, I also talked to women that I had never met before. The entire week I went to parties every day and wore a nametag.\nMy past week wasn't something out of the circus or a bizarre office party. I participated in women's recruitment. As a member of a sorority, I have joined in this interesting process of picking and choosing every year. And every year, after the parties are over, I find myself and my sorority sisters with a new group of women that are initiated, live in the house, and eventually become my friends. But is it really that easy?\nThe process of recruitment is essentially a stupid concept. Over the week I talked to about sixty different women, and I am only one of many in a house. The conversations consisted of anything from where each woman lives to her favorite songs, movies or take-out order, depending on where the chat takes us. This process of making small talk goes on all week, and then through a secretive process, the sororities welcome a group of strangers that they call sisters.\nIn the past years, along with many of the aspects of Greek life, women's recruitment has taken a beating, and rightfully so. I will be the first to admit recruitment is a superficially cruel way to pick women to be in a sorority. I've often wondered why over a thousand women submit themselves to voluntary torture every year just to be a member of such-and-such house. But I did, and I don't regret it. \nBut I was lucky. I got in. On the flipside, there are hundreds of women that get cut from lists, get bids from houses they don't like or don't get bids at all. Instead of being greeted by a house full of new friends, they are subject to many emotions, which often lead to tears. While many women are greeted by a house full of new friends, there are many who are left out. Recruitment is like an emotional roller coaster that leaves you wanting another ride or running to the nearest bathroom. So is there anyway to change the process?\nAll things considered, good and bad, there is no better way, especially because of the large numbers of women participating. It has worked in the past, and does still today. Ask any sorority member if she wishes she were in another house. Chances are, she'll say no. So until someone comes up with a better idea, the system in place will have to do. It works, so why fix it? As always, when the new members of my sorority came over to their new house Monday, they were just what we were looking for.\nSo you can knock women's recruitment all you want; I will probably agree. But what might be a superficial and stupid process brings strangers together and makes them friends. It makes a lifetime of memories and laughter and tears. And most of all, it creates a family that is bound together by the sorority name and a bond that is hard to break. Not much else can do that.