Sororities prepare for formal recruitment

As Penn’s Greek system prepares to welcome Zeta Tau Alpha to campus, Penn’s seven existing sororities are gearing up for formal recruitment this coming spring.

Although the addition and pending colonization of ZTA may alter the Panhel environment, Greek leaders believe student interest in Greek life is strong enough to sustain all eight groups and yield healthy pledge classes.

According to College senior Carolyne Volpe, recruitment chairwoman for Delta Delta Delta, and College senior Atlee Melillo, president of Alpha Chi Omega, both Tri Delt and AXO will conduct recruitment in the same way as any other year.

“Tri Delta is really excited to welcome ZTA onto campus,” Volpe wrote in an e-mail. “We do not intend to change any part of our recruitment process because of the new sorority’s presence.”

Melillo agreed. “We believe in the recruitment process and think most girls end up in the house right for them,” she wrote in an e-mail.

College senior and outgoing Panhel President Darby Nelson also offered thoughts on the upcoming pledge season.

“I believe that Penn’s seven existing sororities are all strong organizations,” she wrote in an e-mail. “The chapters should continue to bring their A-game, as they do every year.”

Furthermore, she added, ZTA will help “accommodate the growing number of Penn women interested in joining the Panhellenic community.”

ZTA is set to recruit women from all class years after Penn’s other seven sororities formally recruit their pledge classes in January.

Because ZTA will participate in formal recruitment this year, the Panhel community will “direct its resources on a successful recruitment for the present sororities,” Nelson explained.

“After these groups have welcomed their new members,” she wrote, Panhel can focus on “the successful colonization of Zeta Tau Alpha.”

The incoming Panhel president, College junior and Sigma Delta Tau sister Rachel Abeles, echoed these sentiments.

“The colonization process was a really long and enduring process,” she said. “But at the end of the day it was a decision made by the entire Panhellenic community and each house had an input.”

“ZTA coming to campus is really just the symbol of our strength and our desire to include more people in the Greek community,” she said. “I think they will add tremendous things to the Greek community and to Penn’s campus.”

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