Formal Spring Recruitment hits UMD for the spring of 2014
Today will kick off the University of Maryland’s Panhellenic Association’s formal recruitment program.
The program, which is held every spring semester, is open to all students who hold a minimum GPA of 2.5 or above. Recruitment is scheduled for both this weekend and next weekend.
Students involved will attend all of Maryland’s 15 greek women’s chapters, and get the chance to get to know the many greek communities on campus.
Contrary to many other schools in the country, Maryland’s greek recruitment process begins during begins during the first two weeks of the spring semester. Many other schools schedule their recruitment programming in the week leading up to school in order to allow students to properly readjust to the start of their academic semester.
“I think it’s fine starting now. We don’t have much work yet and although it would be less stressful doing it beforehand, I think it would be difficult to start welcoming in 40 new girls while just starting classes,” said sophomore psychology major Yasmine Guedalia.
Others feel the overlap is stressful and inconvenient.
“Especially since our break is so long and a lot of people are running out of things to do at the end, it would be in PHA’s best interest as well as ours for recruitment to start before classes,” felt Rachel Nieves, a sophomore communications major.
Nieves said that the switch would make it easier for students to deal with the hectic first couple weeks of school, and give them a more extended time to finalize their academic schedule.
Rebecca, a girl who is acting as a Rho Gamma during the formal recruitment period, said she would not want recruitment to begin before the spring semester.
“I don’t think we have a long enough winter break for recruitment to start earlier. If you wanted to take a class or travel, your plans would be cut short if you had to rush back to school early for recruitment,” she said.
Rho Gammas are responsible for leading designated groups of potential new members to the different chapter houses, as well as to give advice. During recruitment they hide their Greek affiliation so as not to present a bias.
“I’m really excited about recruitment. This is my first time going through it, and although it’s time consuming I’m excited to meet new girls. It’s interesting because thinking back on it, I had no idea the girls in the sororities were as nervous as I was. We all want the girls to like us as much as they want us to like them,” Guedalia said.