Men looking for a date tonight may be out of luck. Five hundred eighty-nine girls have already made a commitment to SU’s Greek System.

About 600 girls are registered for the Panhellenic recruitment process, which begins this evening at 6 p.m. in the Schine Student Center, said Angela Minardi, Panhel’s membership development chair and a senior public relations major.

While the number is lower than last year’s 624 registered women, Minardi said the houses were pleased with the number.

‘As with anything, you cannot expect numbers to be exactly the same every year,’ she said.

SU officials aren’t concerned with the lower number, especially in light of last year’s figures.

‘Last year was the highest number in recent years,’ said Laurel Reed Rosch, the associate director for leadership programs in the Office of Greek Life and Experiential Learning.

Panhellenic recruitment consists of three separate rounds of parties that cover all 12 social sororities. The process lasts nine days, and women will receive bids Feb. 8.

Rosch, who advises the Panhellenic chapters, said women become involved in social fraternities to meet new people, participate in community service and leadership opportunities and continue a family tradition of greek life.

Other students said joining a sorority helps make a campus of 13,000 students seem smaller.

‘When you to go SU, it’s a big campus,’ said Becky Chaffee, a senior advertising and religion major and Panhel Membership Recruitment chairperson. ‘You’re part of a smaller community within a big community.’

The smaller community of greek life has a large presence on campus, though.

‘The Division of Student Affairs has done some surveys to get perceptions of first-year students,’ said Joe Oravecz, the dean of the OGLEL. ‘And the perception is that social life revolves around greeks, and that, yes, it is a very greek campus.’

That sentiment is accurate for some freshmen.

‘When I first got here, I felt like you almost had to be in greek life to have fun,’ said Sally Bonsall, an undeclared freshman in The College of Arts and Sciences. ‘I mean, the first thing we did was go to frat parties.’

About 20 percent of students are involved with campus greek life, Oravecz said . He believes that the perception of an overwhelming Greek System stems from the variety of fraternities and sororities, not the number of students involved in greek life.

‘We have 280 student organizations, and 45 are fraternities and sororities,’ he said. ‘If you’re a student not involved in the greek community, and you see people walking around with funny letters on their chests, you’re seeing a lot of funny letters … hence, the perception is that everyone, or at least half the campus, is greek.’

Chaffee believes that the variety of sororities will help women find an appropriate house for their personality.

‘There is no stereotypical sorority girl on campus when there’s such a variety of sororities,’ she said.

Bonsall attended several sorority tea parties and is convinced that greek life is for her. Her friends from high school, who joined sororities first semester at other colleges, also gave her confidence in her decision.

Other women, however, don’t have strong reasons for going through recruitment.

‘Some women just go through the process to learn more about it,’ Rosch said.

Freshman Ilene Kramer, a communications design studies major, isn’t sure that greek life is for her.

‘I wasn’t going to [sign up], but I figured I should look into it before I pass judgment,’ she said.

Kramer has no idea if she’ll end up joining a sorority, but she knows what she’s looking for.

‘If I think I won’t be able to balance my academics and sorority life, I won’t do it,’ she said. ‘It seems like a good thing, but I don’t want it to take over my life.’

Published on January 29, 2004 at 12:00 pm