Prospective fraternity members visit Greek houses
The Interfraternity Council began its second year of informal recruitment rounds yesterday.
Vanderbilt participates in a deferred joining program that officially begins in January instead of during the first few months of the fall semester.
According to literature distributed by the Greek Life office, Vanderbilt practices deferred joining because “it is important for first-year students to focus on academic achievement, make friends, get settled into college life and to begin making decisions about what types of student organizations [they] want to become involved in while at Vanderbilt.”
Tanner Marcantel, assistant director of Greek life, said, “The purpose of informal rounds is to give new students to Vanderbilt, a lot of those being freshmen, a chance to visit all the fraternities so that they can gain a better understanding of the fraternities that are available to them rather than focusing on the few they knew of before coming to campus.”
During the two days of informal recruitment rounds, freshmen interested in joining a fraternity visit the 17 fraternity chapters, according to Mercantel.
Visiting each house for 15-minute periods allows freshmen to acclimate to the recruitment process, meet and talk to brothers and learn more about the national fraternities.
“It helps them realize that there are lots of different opportunities in each chapter,” he said. “The men are obviously different in each chapter, and the freshmen can find the ones where they would fit in best.”
Thomas Fitzgerald, the IFC recruitment chair, agreed that “rounds are a good way to introduce students to the recruitment process.”
“Each organization has its own activities, values and personality; this helps students figure out which fraternities they want to interact with,” he said.
“This experience definitely has the potential to change my decision about where I rush,” said freshman Alec Hildreth.
“It’ll be a whole lot easier to meet the brothers without all the crowd from a party,” he said.
Throughout the formal and informal recruitment process, an upperclassman fraternity member known as a Greek ambassador leads freshmen to each house during rounds and serves as a mentor and information source throughout IFC recruitment.
“Since IFC recruitment is so much less structured than Panhellenic recruitment, the Greek ambassadors give new students a resource if they’re not familiar with the process,” Mercantel said. “They are available to answer questions and to help them navigate the process. If they want to know about getting invited back, or if they’re interested in attending an event and they don’t know how to get in touch with the appropriate people within the house, Greek ambassadors are there to help.”
“Overall,” Fitzgerald said, “freshmen will be better informed in January when they are eligible to join.”
