By Charlie Fox

There are a lot of questions on how Greek members are dealing with recruitment due to the Coronavirus. Many interested perspectives are wondering how they join and what events each organization is offering.

Nathan Swalley and Mari-Jane McLeod (Gracie) will explain what their designated organization is doing during this time and how to get involved if interested in joining.

Nathan explains how recruitment has changed with COVID-19, “Recruiting for fraternities has always been difficult, but the biggest change is not being able to talk to people face to face which makes it very difficult to form genuine connection and to truly know this person and what type of person they could be for the fraternity.” 

Reaching out to potential new members has always been greatly important within these organizations. Gracie elaborated on how they are reaching out, “In order to still get potential new members (PNMs) to go Greek this semester, we have utilized just about every virtual resource. One of the main things we have focused on is making the most out of our social media. We have focused mainly on the following platforms: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and even a TikTok account. Since we were unable to talk to PNMs in-person, we decided to create interactive stories that they could participate in; do many different things to highlight our organization; and also direct message (DM), text, or snapchat to encourage them to join Greek Life.” 

Gracie also explains what kind of different events have been held during the course of this pandemic, “Our organization has hosted multiple Zoom parties with breakout rooms in order to get that same feeling of talking and getting to know each other during an in-person recruitment party. We have also had several Q&A sessions, videos about sisters, and some other Zoom-related activities.”

Nathan explains how important it is to recruit in the future. Here is what he had to say, “We have learned how important it is to be seen by people on campus and spreading awareness of our existence because now we can not rely on people just coming to our house to hangout. We have to go to the people more than we have in the past.” 

Nathan gave some great advice to other organizations that may be going through the struggle. “Some of the main things I have learned is to have faith in your other members and try not to put all the stress on yourself, because with school being all online it has been quite hectic. Another thing I have learned is to give tasks to the members that you think can step up or you want to see step up into leadership, it will make them feel wanted and involved.” This is all great advice that Nathan and Gracie shared in regards with the pandemic!