On Thursday, August 25th I, along with other girls from each sorority house, took an oath that temporarily disaffiliated me from my sorority. I went through recruitment last fall as a sophomore and have been an active member of my house ever since. Lately I have gotten a lot of questions about why I decided to give up my letters and temporarily disaffiliate.
First off, a lot of people don’t understand what I mean when I say that I am temporarily disaffiliated. Yes, I am still a sister of my sorority. No, I did not get kicked out for any reason, nor did I decide to drop all together. What this means is that I applied for and decided to take on a leadership role as a Rho Psi (pronounced row-sigh) to help other girls go through the process of recruitment.
A couple more questions I get asked a lot are: “Why are you doing this?” and “Don’t you like being in your sorority?” Let me make this clear; I love my sorority and I am temporarily disaffiliated because I think other girls should have the chance to find a sorority that they love too.
Here’s a little background for all of you non-Greek folks to make this a little easier for you to understand. Every year the Panhellenic Council, also referred to as Panhel, puts on a formal recruitment in the fall. Panhel is the governing council for all sororities on campus, so basically they’re in charge of this whole week. During this recruitment process, potential new members, also known as PNMs, will visit each of the sorority houses that we have here on our UNH campus. This process is exciting, confusing, and extremely tiring for everyone involved, but especially the PNMs. This is where the Rho Psis, or Recruitment Counselors (that’s me!), step in. We are there to help Panhel facilitate recruitment, take away some of the confusion, and most importantly answer any questions that the PNMs may have. With this being our job, it is extremely important that the PNMs do not know our sorority affiliation so that we can give unbiased answers to these girls. Also, so they feel comfortable sharing their honest opinions with us. This might be a lot to take in, especially if you’re not familiar with the recruitment process, but that is as simple as I can make it.
So, why did I decide to take on this responsibility and give up my letters for the first month of school? I decided to do this because I want to help girls find their home. As cheesy as that sounds, I know how overwhelming it can be going through recruitment. As a freshman or even a sophomore, you’re fairly new to this school. The freshmen will have only been here for approximately three weeks before they have to make the decision of what sisterhood they want to be a part of for the rest of their college career and life after college. It’s a huge decision and it can become stressful if you’re trying to do it on your own. The week is also tiring and confusing, so these girls need a mentor to help them through it all.
When I went through recruitment I thought my Recruitment Counselors were the most perfect human beings on the planet. I looked up to them that entire week and I still look up to them today. I went to them with every single thing that was on my mind and they helped me with problems ranging from what statement necklace I should wear on the first day to which house I wanted to put as my first choice after preference round. They were there for me and I want to return the favor and be there for the girls this year.
Essentially I gave up my letters, going to recruitment practices, hanging out with my sisters, and taking cute pictures with them so that I could help the PNMs find the houses that they love.
P.s. To my future group of PNMs: I will always be there for you, can’t wait to get you recruitment ready! And to my sisters: I cannot wait to run home to you on bid’s night! Love you, miss you.
If you haven’t signed up for recruitment yet and you’d like to, click here! The festivities start Monday, 9/19!