The first week of school begins the recruitment process for anyone hoping to join a fraternity or sorority this school year. 

Kent State has seven sororities and 18 fraternities that are divided amongst three different governing bodies: Panhellenic Council, Interfraternity Council and The National Panhellenic Council. The Panhellenic Council oversees sororities, The Interfraternity Council oversees the majority of the fraternities on campus, and The National Panhellenic Council oversees a group of seven sororities and fraternities that are traditionally made up of African-American students.

About seven percent of Kent State’s campus participates in greek life but the number of new recruits is growing steadily each year. Last year almost 700 girls went through formal recruitment last year according to Anna Lood, vice president for recruitment and retention for the Panhellenic Council.

“The recruitment process [for sororities] is six days this year and is broken up into rounds, so each woman who wants to go through has to register through our software,” Lood said. “Once they register we have a lot of pre-recruitment events they can attend to kind of get a better idea for Greek life and what it’s about.”

Matthew Coplai, vice president for recruitment and retention at the Interfraternity Council, said that while fraternities hold events they are less formal than those for sororities.

“We have a little different process than girls,” Coplai said. “We don’t have as formal a structure. So, we have events sponsored by the Interfraternity Council that feature all of the fraternities that people can go check out…then the individual chapter events, such as movie nights, info nights, barbecues and cornhole games.”

Both Lood and Coplai said one of the biggest stereotypes they deal with is hazing, something the Greek community at Kent State does not tolerate. Among other stereotypes they face are that Greeks only care about partying and don’t care about their grades. Lood and Coplai said that they, the greek community, prides itself on keeping a high grade point average and for spending time helping their individual philanthropies and helping out the local community.

“It’s a really great opportunity,” Coplai said. “I know a lot of people don’t think they will have time for it or don’t think it would be something that interests them but I hear those stories all the time and then I hear people like ‘Wow, I decided to go to one event and it like changed me forever and now I like want to be a part of it.’”

To register for formal sorority recruitment go tokent.mycampusdirector.com/register/ or a sign up page is available on Kent State’s Panhellenic Council’s website. To register for fraternity recruitment go tohttp://www.kentifc.com/fraternity-interest-form on Kent State’s interfraternity council’s website.

Jacqueline DeMate is the managing editor for the Summer Kent Stater. Contact her at [email protected].