GPA requirement affects eligibility
Five of St. Joe’s seven sororities closed out their spring recruitment on Jan. 27, with fewer potential new members participating compared to last year. The decrease is likely due to a change in GPA requirement, according to those involved in the recruitment process.
This year’s primary recruitment ended with a little over 200 women receiving a bid from one of the five participating sororities, down slightly from last year’s primary recruitment of 227 women.
This past summer the GPA prerequisite for recruitment changed from a minimum 2.5 GPA to a 2.7 GPA.
Out of the seven social sororities at St. Joe’s, five are involved in the spring recruitment process: Alpha Gamma Delta, Alpha Omicron Pi, Alpha Phi, Phi Sigma Sigma and Sigma Sigma Sigma. These five sororities are all part of the National Panhellenic Council (NPC). The two other sororities on campus, Alpha Kappa Alpha and Delta Sigma Theta, are city-wide chapters that have a different recruitment process but also enforce the 2.7 GPA minimum.
“The GPA went up this summer to a 2.7, so naturally eligibility decreased,” said Stacey Sottung, director of Greek life and associate director of the Office of Student Leadership and Activities. “It wasn’t too big of a dip, only by a number of approximately 20, but it was an intentional dip.”
The number of women currently involved in NPC sororities on St. Joe’s campus is much higher than that of other campuses with a similar number of students, Sottung said. This level of interest allowed the GPA requirement for recruitment at St. Joe’s to increase.
“Grades are important to our students, so raising the GPA recruitment was natural to bring in more women who shared the value of having strong academics,” Sottung said.
Melissa Navrot, vice president of recruitment for St. Joe’s Panhellenic Council, said via email that she was not worried the increase in GPA would affect the recruitment process.
“There had been some intentional conversation about finding ways to help sororities develop their sisterhood with such large numbers,” Navrot said. “We knew that the numbers would be a bit smaller when the campus raised the requirement. We are comfortable with how it worked out.”
Knowing the GPA requirement might affect their recruitment numbers, St. Joe’s Panhellenic Council and the sororities themselves increased their efforts this spring in order to spread the word about primary recruitment and bring in more eligible women.
St. Joe’s sororities follow NPC rules for promoting recruitment. Information sessions are held in the fall, and all potential members must complete a two-step registration process before entering primary recruitment. By Jan. 11, interested students had to pay a fee of $30 to cover food and activities that recruitment requires. By Jan. 15, they had to complete online registration.
Taryn Cherubini ’18, recruitment chair for Phi Sigma Sigma, said her sorority offered opportunities in the fall for potential members to learn more about NPC sororities at St. Joe’s as well as meet women already involved.
“We had a meet-the-sisters in the fall, which was a two-hour session just to get to know the sisters,” Cherubini said. “We had some shirts and picture collages, too.”
In the spring, the Panhellenic Council is responsible for getting the word out about primary recruitment as members in NPC sororities are not allowed to share or promote their own sororities once primary recruitment begins.
“Recruitment is not a competition to see who recruits the most members,” Sottung said. “The goal is for every sorority to take an equal number of women.”