Name: Juliette Johnson
Age: 20
Major: Journalism
Hometown: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Why did you decide to apply to the Panhellenic Association (PHA) Executive Board?
I think the biggest reason why I wanted to be on the board for a second term was really because a lot of things happened in our community last year. I saw how it really demoralized our community and really made everyone not feel very excited about their affiliation and not excited to be in Greek Life. So, I think my motivation for wanting to do a second term was to be able to lift that morale and strengthen our community and say, “We are Panhellenic women, and we are our own community and we’re independent of whatever IFC is doing.”
What exactly were your responsibilities as a member of exec last year and how will they be different as PHA president?
Last year, as a member of exec as Vice President of Outreach and Engagement, I mostly handled diversity and inclusion-type situations. In regard to recruitment, if there was a PNM who had any question about any part of their identity in relation to the Panhellenic community, I answered questions about that. A lot of the preparation for recruitment happens before recruitment even starts and, for the most part, during the actual week of recruitment, we’re mostly just making sure that everything goes smoothly.
How do you think the 2018 recruitment process went?
Overall, I think the 2018 recruitment process went really well. Considering the fact that for the first time ever, we had to take a break for MLK day, I think things went fairly smoothly. I think we anticipate there being bumps along the road, whether that be computers not working properly, or people being upset at the results they get the next day, things happen. I think we, as a Panhellenic Executive Board, but also as Recruitment Counselors, prepare harder and harder every year to make sure things do run smoothly.
Do you doubt the recruitment process at all? Has exec ever considered changing it?
I think, to an extent, the way we do recruitment is almost hyper-efficient. It really takes into account worst-case scenarios and it tries its best to be able to make sure that those things don’t happen. It tries to really avoid a lot of the cattiness and pettiness that happen in any kind of member-selection process, in another student organization or club where you may be selecting a member based on arbitrary things rather than what actually matters. By no means do I think this is the most perfect way to go about selecting members for an organization, but I think considering the fact that it is very well-established and has typically worked for most of the people that go through recruitment, we’re kind of sticking with it for now.
Anything else you want to say about the recruitment process?
I can definitely understand why people might think we might pull rules out of our butts because some of them seem really outrageous. But, in fact, every single rule that goes intro recruitment is very well thought out and has a purpose, and there’s a reason why we decided we needed this rule. So, it’s hard for a lot of people to take recruitment seriously, and it’s very understandable why. A lot of people don’t understand the structure of sororities, and why they feel it is necessary, but recruitment is actually a very taken-seriously process, and something we work really hard to put on every year.
Photo Courtesy of Juliette Johnson