The Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life has confirmed that Interfraternity Council (IFC) and College Panhellenic (CPH) recruitment processes will move to earlier in the school year.
CPH recruitment will take place this year from Aug. 29 to Sept. 6, and IFC recruitment will be Aug. 30 through Sept. 6.
Arthur Doctor, director of fraternity and sorority life, said CPH considered moving recruitment processes to before classes begin and discussed the prospect with various campus stakeholders, but more research was needed before that decision could be made.
For many years, formal Greek recruitment processes were held five weeks into the semester, which is later than most Southeastern Conference (SEC) schools. The majority of SEC schools schedule their Greek recruitments for the week prior to the start of fall semester.
“We are excited about this year’s dates because based on feedback received from faculty, active members, potential new members and parents regarding the academic challenges that mid-semester recruitment poses, we believe this range of dates will produce more positive results,” Doctor said.
This change comes as the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life has made other alterations to its program. Last week, the office renamed itself from the Office of Fraternal Leadership and Learning to its current name.
Doctor said the change was made because the previous office title was confusing to some people, and the new name clarifies that the office represents the sororities and the fraternities on campus.
“(The change) signals to the UM community and stakeholders that our office is the ‘one-stop shop’ for all things related to fraternities and sororities at the university,” Doctor said. “For example, we would often receive calls and interact with stakeholders whose first question would be ‘Is this just the office for fraternities?’ or ‘Does this office also work with sororities?’”
This is the second rebrand that Greek organizations have undergone this year.
In November, the National Panhellenic Council, Interfraternity Council and College Panhellenic removed “Ole Miss” from their official names and opted to use “University of Mississippi” instead.
Doctor said this decision was made independently from the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life, and IFC President Cole Barnhill said the reasoning was to become consistent with the branding that the office already used.
