In the midst of a global pandemic, fraternities and sororities have had to come up with brand new ways to recruit members.

Usually, recruitment involves open houses and daily events over the course of one week for fraternities and four days for sororities each semester. This year, many of those events have had to move online.

Reid Krausen, president of Interfraternity Council, discussed the plans for this year at Eastern, including the postponement of events and adoption of hybrid recruitment.

To enable in-person recruitment while following safety guidelines, the nine fraternities will participate in a tabling event on the South Quad which will allow students to “visit” each fraternity, talk to the members and share contact information.

If everything goes as expected, this event will occur in the first weeks of September. Other events may be able to adjust for social distancing, but many will likely be cancelled or replaced with online activities.

Even with these adjustments, IFC expects to see 65 to 70 new members during the 2020-21 school year.

The Panhellenic Council has expanded their recruitment plans into two full weeks which will feature a few in-person but socially distanced events beginning on Aug. 30 with Preview Day.

Additionally, each sorority can hold a limited number of virtual “open houses” throughout the two weeks.

Panhellenic President Hannah Gillaspie said that the recruitment team is doing all they can to help potential new members.

“Unfortunately there is no play book for going Greek during a pandemic, but our hope is to make this as smooth as possible and watch all of our PNM’s find a home here at EIU,” Gillaspie said.

PHC is potentially expecting around 60 new members, but said they don’t want to focus on statistics. Activities surrounding fraternity recruitment are valued memories to many members, and they want traditions to continue.

“I remember coming to campus, not knowing anyone. I had the opportunity to go to class and meet new people,” Krausen said. “My main concern with doing recruitment this way is we cannot show students how great of a community we really are.”

Luke Taylor can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].