Before the expected tears of joy (or sorrow) could flow, Furman's Panhellenic Council adopted new procedures for the 2012 Sorority Recruitment process. The Council adopted the new procedures after Panhellenic Nationals recommended minor changes to Furman's rules for attire, conduct, and recruitment.
In past years, throughout pre-recruitment, open house, and the four rounds of formal recruitment, girls partaking in rush would be informed of which sororities they had been invited back to by way of the "accept/regret" system. Under this system, girls first learned of what sororities they had been invited back to the day before the next round and then chose which they would like to revisit for each round.
This year, girls were told an hour before the next round according to a system called "priority recruitment." Girls selected which sororities they wanted to revisit and the sororities would choose who they wanted to return.
Why the change? Junior Jessica Pate, who participated in the recruitment process as an AZ Leader (a disaffiliated sorority member who helps girls through the rush process) and who also serves as the vice president of scholarship on the Panhellenic Council, said the new system saves time.
"Both systems are pretty similar," she said, "with [Priority Recruitment] being more efficient time-wise: the new process cuts down on the number of meetings for AZs and girls rushing."
Panhellenic Advisor Jessica Berkey said saving time had the additional benefit of ensuring students chose the sorority that was best for them.
"[Priority Recruitment] cuts down on the amount of time students going through recruitment have to talk with another," she said. "It is more likely they are basing their choices on their individual experiences, rather than those of their friends, roommates, or hallmates."
Berkey said the new system improved the process for sororities as well.
"This style also allows the Recruitment Team to better predict changes in a chapter's strength and ensure that there is parity among the chapters throughout the process," she said.
However, giving girls less time before rounds sometimes meant less composure during rounds.
"Of course I was really nervous about being cut from the sororities that I wanted, but that ended up not being a huge issue for me," said freshman Christina Dietz, "but I know that for some people it was a really bad idea to find out that close to the round because they would be really disappointed and then have to go into rounds really emotional."
Dietz said she would have rather found out the results of rounds the day before than the day of.
Freshman Emily Sherman felt similarly about the process.
"One of the positives is that you couldn't drop that day [if you didn't want to go to a sorority that had invited you back]," she said. "There wasn't enough time, so you had the opportunity to go back and get a second look at some of the sororities that you hadn't really considered. But if you hadn't gotten invited back to a lot, you didn't have much time to compose yourself."
Sherman also said she would have rather learn the results of a round the day before rather than an hour before the next round.