UNM's Greek community is looking forward to a prosperous recruitment of new members this fall, and everyone involved agrees the bi-annual event is crucial in sustaining the traditions they have started at UNM.
"Fall recruitment is historically more productive for Greek organizations because of the large number of incoming freshman and the fact that it is the start of a new year and people are looking for ways to get involved on campus," said Josh Parsons, president of UNM's Intrafraternity Council and member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.
Parsons said there are currently more than 600 Greeks at UNM involved at some level in the University's 11 fraternities and six sororities.
He said the Intrafraternity Council, whose rules the fraternities at UNM abide by, state that official recruitment lasts six days, this fall begins Sunday and will run through Friday, Aug. 30.
"Recruitment is by far the most important tool that Greek organizations have," said Jimmy Mitchell, vice president of recruitment for Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. "It is essentially the only thing that ensures that the traditions and history that we have created does not die."
He added that on average, at least 15 members "fade" from active involvement in the fraternity every semester, and while he couldn't provide an average number of new recruits that Sigma Phi Epsilon aims to recruit every semester, he said it was at least enough to replace those who had left.
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Mitchell said under UNM guidelines, all recruitment activities must remain "dry," meaning that no alcohol can be involved in the process. He said UNM's fraternities all participate in numerous activities to introduce potential new recruits to the members of the organization, including barbecues, volleyball and free movies.
A night full of live music and human jousting are just some of the events the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity is anticipating this week, Mitchell added.
UNM's Panhellenic Council, which governs four of the six sororities on campus, sets aside four days for recruitment of new members every semester, said Allie Thompson, president of the University's Pi Beta Phi sorority.
"We all work together to make the process formal, but informative and above all inviting," Thompson said.
Thompson said Panhellenic Council rules indicate that sororities can recruit enough new members to make their total membership 70.
"That means that recruitment is different for every sorority every semester, but on average around 25 new members are recruited to each sorority," Thompson said.
The Multicultural Greek Council that oversees UNM's two upstart Hispanic sororities is more flexible with its recruitment policies as an adequate number of members has yet to be reached, said Rosie Matlock, vice president of the council.
Matlock said the Kappa Delta Chi sorority, which has been at UNM for less than five years, practices year-long recruitment and that Lambda Theta Alpha, the Hispanic sorority that is still undergoing the chartering process at UNM, schedules several weeks of events to recruit new events.
