Sorority recruitment is intense, exhausting, and demanding. You are expected to look and act your best for hours on end in hopes of being selected by a sorority. As if being scored isn’t stressful enough, you are simultaneously expected to pick the sisterhood that is perfect for you in a matter of days. For some Potential New Members (PNMs), the process is perceived as so awful and superficial they completely drop out without finding their home. In fact, my freshman year recruitment was so overwhelming I dropped only halfway through even though I desperately wanted the sense of community sororities provide. Luckily, I received a bid a few weeks after recruitment and ended up where I needed to be. However, after my subpar in-person experience I was nervous that recruitment would be even more unfair and tiring over a computer screen.
My main concern was the lack of warmth Zoom would provide. Immersing yourself in the social environment of each sorority is a significant part of the recruitment process that cannot be replaced by muffled music and shared Zoom screens. Another concern I had was implicit biases sorority women may have when ranking the PNMs without face-to-face interactions. While there are girls who inherently have an advantage because of who they know, prior to this year everyone was still walking into the same room and having face-to-face interactions. Now, PNMs would be scored in different time zones and through tiny screens. I was also worried about both PNMs and sorority women who didn’t have access to stable internet or nice cameras and laptops. While I would like to think those things wouldn’t matter, it’s easier to remember positive things about a 10-minute conversation with pristine lighting and audio than it is with a glitchy mic or dull background.
While my concerns were not completely resolved, Zoom recruitment brought one pleasant surprise: a level of authenticity I had not yet seen in Greek Life. The COVID restrictions last semester made it hard for sororities to get to know the freshmen since pop-ins were virtual and interactions were limited. This created a fresh start for many PNMs going through recruitment, as the process this year required new interactions and placed less of an emphasis on who you knew beforehand. Supportive, uplifting, and hopeful conversations supplanted the usual surface-level checklists. RecruitmentIt being over Zoom ultimately allowed PNMs to make a decision based on where they truly felt at home, even over a screen. PNMs were able to determine who they felt connected to without the peer pressure and bells and whistles usually present during rounds.
Even though recruitment lacked the in-person interaction most Furman students are craving, it created a place where the new members were more in control of the experience and allowed PNMs to make more of an unbiased decision on to which sorority they wanted to join. Genuine and deep conversations during recruitment usually don’t occur until later in the week. Myself and many other sorority women were worried that Zoom would only amplify the challenge of getting to truly know the PNMs but it ended up being the complete opposite. Creating an environment that solely focused on the conversation you were having with no distractions allowed the sororities to get to know every PNM on a much deeper level much earlier on. Zoom recruitment still had its flaws, and once things are safe again it should continue to be held in person. But the beautiful authenticity in conversations we experienced over Zoom should be reflected on and replicated throughout future recruitments. It would benefit both the sororities and PNMs and be a huge step towards making recruitment a more positive experience.
