Rho Gammas help take stress out of recruitment process

The screams of sorority girls will soon be heard as the three month process of recruitment comes to an end Monday. The girls who decide to rush, though, do not go through it alone.

Behind each group of potential new members — PNMs — is a Rho Gamma, or recruitment counselor, to help answer questions, coordinate schedules and rankings and support all the decisions that must be made.

This year there are 79 Rho Gammas.

They were hired in March, have met weekly since September, can sing the cheers of each chapter and are disaffiliated from their own organizations. They use fake names so their PNMs don’t know to which sororities they belong.

Rho Gamma “Kelley” has been camped out in the Indiana Memorial Union, helping her group of sophomore women through the rush process.

“I know that going through recruitment is extremely difficult,” Kelley said.

“When I went through I didn’t feel 100 percent confident talking to my Rho Gamma. I wanted to make sure the girls that went through recruitment this year had someone to talk to.”

Kelley, who met her Rho Gamma group just before Thanksgiving Break, said the women in her group have become less overwhelmed by the process the more they learned about it.

“You don’t know whether to base your perceptions off the houses this year or the houses last year,” Kelley said of the sophomores. “A lot of my PNMs have come to me and said their idea of recruitment has changed a lot since they were freshmen.”

But across campus, Rho Gamma “Ali” is working with freshmen women in McNutt Quad, trying to support each of them through all the stresses of a process that can be very overwhelming.

She describes her job as one of support and celebration.

“You get to know these girls on a one-on-one basis,” Ali said. “I’m getting to know their personalities so I can actually have a conversation with a PNM and then gauge how to act around them.”

Despite her training, Ali said the hardest part is knowing many women will be upset by the process, particularly in a greek community as competitive as IU’s.

“I’m predicting when my girls aren’t going to be receiving back chapters they fell in love with in the beginning,” Ali said. “I’m going to be just as upset as they are. But they know I’ll be here, and always be here, long after the process.”

But it’s as much about supporting potential members as it is enjoying recruitment from a different perspective.

As upperclassmen, both Ali and Kelley rushed women last year.

By being Rho Gammas, they said they lose being a part of their own chapters but have instead forged new friendships with women throughout the greek community.

This year, the Panhellenic Association  has reserved a block of rooms at the IMU, where each Rho Gamma will stay until early Monday morning — when the final rankings have been submitted.

“This is a time to really bond with your chapter,” Kelley said. “I personally am very passionate about my chapter and I love recruitment, but it’s been really cool that all the Rho Gammas are together.”

As the process finally draws to a close, senior Robyn Coale, one of three recruitment directors who helped hire and train Rho Gammas, said it’s the support that makes recruitment so organized and more enjoyable for all.

“There are so many logistical things and so many rules,” Coale said. “But students run the whole process.”