Loyalty, leadership, sisterhood and service — that’s what Loyola sororities champion as their values.

Every year, the new members they recruit expand and alter these descriptions and characteristics that define each sorority on campus. This year, 118 women signed up for Loyola’s Panhellenic Council recruitment week, held Oct. 7-12, hoping to join the ranks of Alpha Chi Omega, Delta Gamma, , Gamma Phi Beta or Theta Phi Alpha with 91 women receiving bids.

Convocation:

These potential new members were to arrive at the St. Charles Room for the hour-long convocation at 7 p.m. Here, everyone found out what group they were in and who their Pi Chi recruitment counselor was. A Pi Chi is a woman who temporarily disaffiliates herself from a sorority in order to lead others with an unbiased view. Once the potential new members checked in, they were separated into their groups, which had a board game theme, such as Twister, Cranium, Monopoly and Life.

However, it wasn’t a board game night that was planned, but a fashion show of what to wear and what not to wear for the week. For example, “church attire” does not mean a short, low cut dress one model exhibited. Convocation also provided rules for the week.

Girls were instructed not to go out to clubs or bars during recruitment, to arrive to everything they were invited to and to wear proper attire.

The “silence rule,” was reiterated. Potential new members were not allowed to talk to anyone affiliated with a sorority outside of the scheduled recruitment events. This rule also applies to Pi Chis.

The informational session seemed to pose more questions the potential new members had than when they began. None of the women knew exactly what to expect in the following days.

Open House:

Open house began at 6:30 p.m. in the Danna Center Art Gallery. At this event, the potential new members were once again separated into their game board groups from the previous day.

Before meeting with the individual sororities, the new women had to leave all personal belongings in an assigned area. No cell phones, watches or chewing gum were allowed. One Pi Chi had women spit out their gum into her hand.

At this point, women had a chance to meet each sorority, though no potential new member was allowed to be alone during the night.

The sororities each had a designated room on campus. The Pi Chis walked everyone to the meeting areas, the art gallery, the Market and the restroom. Each group had 20 minutes to visit each sorority and ask questions.

Each experience was similar. Before entering each of the four locations to meet sororities, the potential new members lined up in front of the door, and everyone knew when the sorority was ready to greet them due to the singing heard from behind the door. Once the door opened, the new women walked in, and a sorority member took each woman by the arm to provide one-on-one time.

The rooms were decorated with each sorority’s jerseys, pictures and other standard sorority pieces such as picture frames, mugs and paddles.

Following the four meetings, each potential new member had to rank sororities in order of preference. The potential new members left around 11 p.m.

Philanthropy:

Philanthropy night provided women with information about what cause each sorority supported. The dinner began at 5:30 p.m. in the Danna Center Art Gallery. Like the previous day, each sorority was in a room, and after being escorted to each area by a Pi Chi the potential new members waited to hear the singing and chanting.

A sorority member took each woman by the arm and directed her to a seat. There was some small talk, but once everyone was settled, the sorority members began talking about their philanthropies.

After the presentation, the potential new members and their corresponding sorority members worked on an arts and crafts project that was to be sent to each organization or event the sororities supported. Delta Gamma decorated dog bowls for seeing eye dogs, Alpha Chi Omega created inspirational quote bags for “Take Back the Night,” an event dedicated to stopping sexual violence through awareness, Theta Phi Alpha created picture frames for Camp Friendship and Gamma Phi Beta made teddy bears for a camp. Each session lasted 45 minutes.

After meeting with the sororities, each potential new member ranked her three top sororities, rather than all four. Some girls were invited back and others were not.

Sisterhood:

While meeting with Pi Chis, the potential new members received slips of paper with their names on it, which were invitations to see sorority skits and mingle with members. The maximum amount of skits a potential new member could be invited to was three.
The women met in the Danna Center Art Gallery at 3:15 p.m. Dinner was served and meeting with the sororities began immediately.

Instead of only one-on-one time, sororities performed skits to explain what sisterhood is. For example, Gamma Phi Beta performed a “Wizard of Oz” parody, with Dorothy, a tin woman, a lion and a scarecrow as potential new members trying to find a sorority that would fit them. After some skits, there was more time to talk to members.
Following skits, women ranked their top two sororities.

Preference:

Upon meeting with Pi Chis, each woman received another slip of paper with their name and the name of the sorority’s preference party she was invited to. While some received two invitations , others received one. Those who did not receive any invites were notified prior to the meeting at 4:45 p.m. in the Danna Center Art Gallery.

The preference party offered a more intimate setting. With less potential new members, those remaining could talk one-on-one with a sorority member. Following preference parties, women could rank one sorority.

Bid Day:

Monday was bid day, the day some women received invitations to join a sorority. Rather than a slip of paper, an actual invitation (a bid) was delivered to women around 4:30 p.m. Induction for new members began that day at locations of each sorority’s choosing.

There was a Pi Chi revealing. To make the event more suspenseful for the new members to guess what Pi Chi was a member of which sorority, Pi Chis wore clothing displaying the letters of other sororities. As Pi Chis took off one shirt, another shirt was revealed, displaying the letters of another sorority. The last shirt left denoted the sorority the Pi Chi was affiliated with.

Precious Esie can be reached at [email protected]