While many Stevens experiences have been disrupted due to COVID-19, the Stevens Panhellenic Council still managed to organize formal sorority recruitment. Unlike previous years, this recruitment season was completely virtual in order to respect the Stevens Health Honor Code guidelines. Despite the given challenges of a virtual environment, the process went smoothly and concluded with minimal Zoom hiccups.
The recruitment process was four days long, starting on January 30 and ending on February 2. Round Robin, an event that takes place the first night of recruitment and allows potential new members (PNMs) to meet with all the sororities, was organized by creating separate Zoom links for each chapter. Similar to in-person recruitment, every PNM circulated through each room (or in this case, Zoom link) and met with sisters. The remaining days consisted of a Philanthropy Round, a Preference Round, and Bid Matching, which were all held in a similar fashion to Round Robin.
Although virtual recruitment saw great success, there were many changes from what the process would have looked like in person. While the process was foreign to many potential new members (PNMs), it was even more unfamiliar to existing sorority sisters. Grace Miguel, a member of Phi Sigma Sigma, stated, “it was definitely a challenge to get girls excited about recruitment when we’d normally be spending 10 hours in the house making decorations.” Although sororities like Phi Sigma Sigma were unable to display their house to PNMs, Miguel explained, “we still held our retreat virtually to prepare the new members as well as old for this year’s recruitment which fostered a sense of community.”
Similarly, CeCe Karol, the current President of Sigma Delta Tau, explained, “Virtual recruitment was a fun challenge for the sisters of Sigma Delta Tau and caused us as a chapter to think outside the box when it came to ideas for recruitment.” This year, workshop time was spent creating Zoom backgrounds and navigating breakout rooms instead of decorating Babbio classrooms. Even with virtual difficulties, Karol explained that “The conversations we had with potential new members were just as meaningful.”
Despite these changes, the quality of the recruitment process was still preserved according to many sisters. All the sororities maximized the functionalities of Zoom by using breakout rooms to prompt more intimate conversations between sisters and PNMs. Miguel described her experience by saying, “I do feel that I was able to have good conversations with the potential new members. Of course there may have been technical difficulties from either end but that did not hinder any chance of getting a bid.” Despite not being able to fully understand how the PNMs and sisters would interact in person, Miguel believes, “we put a lot of effort into simulating the best experience possible.”
Karol believes the quality of recruitment was not only preserved but also improved in the virtual environment. After training the sisters to recruit virtually, Karol said, “If anything, potential new members were able to get to know our sisters even better since it was easy for PNMs to see the kind of person that is a part of Sigma Delta Tau.” The recruitment team valued meaningful conversations and found that unique discussions were more apparent in the virtual setting.
It is clear that each sorority put in the time to ensure that each PNM had a memorable and exciting experience. In hindsight, very few improvements could have been made to the process using the same technology. Miguel stated that, “If we were to have another virtual recruitment, I would recommend the use of more icebreakers during round robin.” Comparably, Karol voiced, “If we had to recruit virtually again, we would go into it much stronger and would try to incorporate other innovative virtual programming ideas into our recruitment strategy.” While students hold high hopes that recruitment will be in-person next year, the recruitment teams for each sorority are well-equipped and prepared for another virtual season.
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