Panhellenic Recruitment
The beginning of a new school year brings a plethora of activities on campus to assist new students to get involved on campus and meet new people. The first weekend of the semester, August 22nd through the 25th, Panhellenic Primary Recruitment took place. Potential New Members (PNMs) were guided through the process with the help of their Panhellenic Counselors (Pi Chis).
Pi Chis play a big role during the recruitment process. Selected early in the year, Pi Chis spend time training on how to guide women through the recruitment process which can be stressful at times. Pi Chis are disaffiliated from their chapter during this time in order to act as an unbiased role model during the recruitment process as well as answer questions and give advice to PNMs.
Each woman who goes through the primary recruitment process has the chance to spend time at our 8 National Panhellenic Council sororities on campus. Day 1 is split between Thursday and Friday evening, where PNMs are able to get a tour of the chapter house, meet women in the community and learn more about sorority life. Day 2, women are able to get a deeper look into chapter’s sisterhoods and philanthropies. The final day is Preference Day, where PNMs get to spend the most amount of time at a maximum of two houses, being a part of a special ceremony. Each day allows women to spend more time at chapter houses, enabling them to develop deeper connections with chapter members and discover their values.
The finale of recruitment is Bid Day where chapter members and new members have the chance to celebrate the hard work and excitement of recruitment. PNMs and Pi Chis meet on the North Mall to witness Pi Chi reveal and open their bid cards. Senior members from each chapter are also present to run home with the new members. This year, Men’s Basketball coach, Dana Ford spoke encouraging words to the PNMs before opening their bids, congratulating them on finding a ‘team’ to join on campus. This year, over 500 women found their home within Panhellenic life. Our local sorority, Xi Omicron Iota is also holding their recruitment September 9th through the 14th.
Interfraternity Council Recruitment
August also brings IFC recruitment events as well. During the first two weeks of classes, men have the opportunity to attend recruitment events such as BBQ’s, service projects and intramural games. Men have the choice of what recruitment events and chapters to go to. Between the 19 recognized IFC chapters on campus, over 400 men joined Fraternity life this fall.
We are so excited to have welcomed over 900 men and women into Fraternity and Sorority Life here at Missouri State! To stay up to date with our community, follow @mostateFSL on Instagram and Twitter.
Former Delta Chi president and 2018 Homecoming King, Andre McIntyre, had the opportunity to be a part of the Fraternal Government Relations Coalition’s (FGRC) Capital Hill visit April 23-25th in Washington D.C. Andre was one of a handful of students presented with this opportunity to visit the nation’s capital through direct interaction in legislative process currently impacting fraternity and sorority life across the country. While there, he was able to represent Delta Chi Fraternity, Fraternity and Sorority Life members and Missouri State University. Andre said, “My team consisted of myself and Emily Bauer, a Delta Phi Epsilon from Truman State, and we visited the offices of Congressional leaders to discuss the benefits of FSL, why students’ freedom of association should be protected, and three pieces of legislation… The legislation protects our freedom of association, and the other two were anti-hazing policies that add transparency to acts of hazing on campus.”
When asked what made him want to go he said the following, “when I was presented with the opportunity, I had the chance to research the issue. Reflecting on my fraternity experience, being a part of a single-sex organization has added so much to my overall university and has provided incredible opportunity for growth and leadership development. I found the issue very relevant to me and something that I am passionate about.”
“[Being in charge of philanthropy] allowed me the privilege to take head on planning the Sigma Chi Food Drive benefiting Bear Pantry! When the new exec board was elected, we knew that we wanted to improve our philanthropic donations and become more invested with philanthropic events around campus. After constructing a new philanthropy committee, we took the time to organize this event. I heard about the new Bear Pantry on campus and I felt that it would be a perfect opportunity to help jump start the Bear Pantry and give Sigma Chi an opportunity to fulfill Missouri State’s Public Affairs Mission by being engaged in the community in order to collect donations for the pantry. I know that there are so many students and families that suffer from food insecurity and I felt that this would be a perfect opportunity to help them overcome the obstacle of food insecurity in any way possible… As we were planning the food drive, I never really thought of a specific goal in mind in regards to how many donations we would receive, but we definitely exceeded any expectations that I could have had. After three days of collecting donations, we ended up collecting 1,150 items, totaling at 475.9 pounds of items. Along with food, we were also collecting toiletries, deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrushes, etc. and I was very happy to see some of those items donated as well. Not only did we want to collect food for the Bear Pantry, but we wanted to help spread information about the Bear Pantry to the students in hope that if someone ever finds themselves struggling, they now know they have somewhere to turn to for help. Everyone in the chapter, especially myself, was thrilled with the outcome of our food drive, and we are definitely looking forward to working with the Bear Pantry a lot more in the future. Lastly, Sigma Chi would like to extend a big thank you to everyone who donated to our food drive because without your generous donations we wouldn’t have been as successful as we were!”
