Every year, thousands of Syracuse University students participate in fraternity and sorority recruitment. In recent years, recruitment processes have grown excessively structured.

There is also a fee to participate. The Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Association collect this money for no stated purpose.

The IFC and Panhel do not have the jurisdiction to make money for themselves. Both are governing councils within the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, which is a unit within the Division of Student Affairs funded by SU.

The councils also don’t need to make money for themselves. They are funded as tier-four organizations on the Student Association scale. Tier-four organizations are the most established and successful student organizations on campus. They receive about $200,000 per event from SA.

As recently as the late 2000s, recruitment participation was a liberal student right. There was no fee. Just like every other student organization on campus, greek organizations were free to look at.

In the latter half of the 2000s, the governing bodies formalized the process.

Interested students used to visit whatever houses they wanted for the entire week. With the change, they had to spend the first few days touring every house in numbered groups.

Apparently, this austere kink has market value. Registration fees became a necessary stipulation – $15 for men, $50 for women.

In the fall of 2011, the drudging mass tour was confined to a single day for men. The IFC more than doubled the fee, raising it from $15 to $35.

The sorority recruitment fee has since descended from $50 to $37. How generous.

The Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs offers no indication of where this money goes. It is simply described as “non-refundable” on the online registration form.

When pressed, officials claim it pays for the educational speaker on Bid Day.

This may be true, but the speaker isn’t exactly Bill Clinton. The speaker probably doesn’t cost a small fortune. Much like a middle school health teacher, the speaker lectures on safe drinking and partying practices.

All together, recruitment payments add up to a small fortune.

Roughly 900 women are participating in recruitment this week. Roughly 800 men participated last spring.

Since each woman pays $37 and each man pays $35, the total pot amounts to more than  $61,000. You could feed and house two poverty-stricken families on that account.

Where does all of this money even go?

It doesn’t go toward semester expenses for individual houses. That’s what member dues are for.

It doesn’t go toward charity because unless you’re Ted Danson in “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” large charitable partnerships are public knowledge.

By charging a fee, the governing bodies are capitalizing on a student interest with a perennially high stock.

Greek life has a romantic allure in our society. For young men and women with their hearts set, a participation fee is a meaningless formality. They barely think once about where their money is going or where it went.

It’s understandable. For those who join, the fee is worth it. For those who don’t, it’s not worth fighting for a refund.

But when you really stop to consider it, the IFC and Panhel are charging students to walk into houses and flirt with people.

Jarrad Saffren is a junior political science and television, radio and film major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at jdsaffre@syr.edu. 

Published on January 30, 2013 at 2:40 am