Like many other activities this year, Colgate’s greek life recruitment week looked a little different due to Covid restrictions. The usual walks down Broad Street to the sorority houses, tripping over high heels and struggling to remember your name tag vanished. Instead, visiting each house became a new zoom link that let us get away with wearing makeup and a cute blouse on top while secretly wearing sweatpants on the bottom.
For current members, one of the hardest parts (beside the technical difficulties) was keeping up the excitement in conversations with potential new members through the computer screen. “Without the in- person interaction, it was very hard to really get a sense of the person you were talking to,” says Megan Herbruck, a current sorority member on campus. “I’m glad we could go on zoom to see people and have actual conversations, but the process was weird and hard.”
This reaction seemed like the general consensus for girls going through recruitment for the first time as well. “I’ve had great conversations with so many wonderful women,” says Riley Decker, a new member of Tri Delta, “but I do wish I could experience traditional rush and see each house in person.”
Overall, it was definitely not the ideal experience for both sides involved. On a brighter note, however, not everything seemed to be worse on zoom. Current sophomore and new sorority member, Caitlyn Joyce, talks about how “In a way it was less stressful because you [weren’t surrounded by] everyone who was trying to get into the same sororities as you, and there was less background noise.” One of the most awkward parts of recruitment for me last year was painfully asking a girl to repeat her question three times because of the noise of all the conversations around me, so I can certainly attest to that second benefit.
Having recruitment on zoom also seemed to be the best option, given the circumstances. Since quite a few people chose to stay at home for the semester, in-person recruitment would not have been possible for them. One sophomore girl I spoke with during recruitment explained her happiness that recruitment was on zoom, since she was at home in Korea and would have been sad to miss the chance to participate in Greek Life this year.
The question on many potential new members minds’ was what exactly being in a sorority will look like this year? As of right now, we are all figuring it out. It definitely will not be the “traditional” experience that many of us know and love, but just like everything else so far this semester, it will just take some creativity and, of course, sisterhood to make the best of the situation. :)