Campus sororities see numbers fall
Ashland University chapters aim to see numbers on the rise this fall
February 25, 2022
On the Ashland University campus, sororities pride themselves on being a community that fosters values, philanthropy and sisterhood in a safe, hazing free environment.
This reputation that the Fraternity and Sorority Life (FSL) community has built is going strong, but the chapter numbers—especially on the women’s side—have seen a decline.
A variety of factors from COVID-19 to enrollment changes have allowed the numbers to drop, but now the sorority chapters strive to bring numbers back up this year.
“Our chapter is quite a bit smaller right now than when I joined, but we had a large graduating class last year,” Gavyn Dashner, chapter president of Theta Phi Alpha said. “We’ve started to recover but it takes time to rebuild.”
At the time of the Fall 2021 report, Theta Phi Alpha had 43 members, Delta Zeta had 52, Alpha Phi had 45 and Alpha Delta Pi had 53.
According to Dustin Hargis, director of Fraternity and Sorority Life and Student Leadership at Ashland University, while the numbers are down on the women’s side, the chapters are still going strong as about 1 in every 5 women on campus are in a sorority, equating to about 17 percent of women across AU.
As the informal recruitment season continues, sororities hope to see these statistics rise even more.
“I’m hoping this semester we can have a good recruitment and get a good number of people coming in because we only have three graduating this spring, which is going to be a lot easier on the chapter,” Dashner said.
Theta Phi Alpha is not the only chapter with high hopes for Fall Recruitment either. Delta Zeta Vice President Reegan Honaker has high hopes for the formal recruitment season.
Delta Zeta usually brings in around 15 to 20 new members in the fall bid class, but this year they brought in 8. During the spring, they hope to continue growing their numbers through continuous open bidding (COB) recruitment which allows for people to join in a more informal process.
“Going forward with recruitment in the fall, I think we are going to have a lot better of a turn out, especially since Ashland University is doing everything, they can to get our campus back to as normal as possible,” Honaker said.
The other two chapters, Alpha Phi and Alpha Delta Pi, declined to comment on recruitment numbers.
As informal recruitment continues, chapters are aiming to get their numbers back on the rise and look to new methods to bring in more women.
“I think a lot of it is just trying to be creative and finding different groups of people on campus,” Hargis said. “We get so caught in the routine of recruiting from the same organization that were in, like if you’re on a certain athletic team, you’re more likely to go to a certain chapter.”
Until recruitment comes back around again, Hargis and the chapter presidents are looking to boost up the chapters and their members.
“We’re trying to make sure the members within our community are in a good, healthy, comfortable spot,” Hargis said. “We feel like that’ll help in turn be able to get back and show the impact that a fraternity or sorority experience can have on you as an individual.”
The chapters themselves are also gearing up to ensure that they are ready for recruitment in the fall and be ready to bring in all new sisters.
In the meantime, they are also continuing to look for girls to join the COB way in the spring without all of the steps of formal recruitment.
“I am working hard with our assistant to Recruitment position Kayla Pitts to find girls to join our sorority that we feel lineup with our values and beliefs,” Honaker said.
While the numbers might be down on the sorority side of things, there is still not much concern from the chapters as they know things are on the mend with COVID-19 policies declining. The chapter executives are working diligently to ensure that their current members are happy and their chapters are a welcoming place for future sisters.
“We don’t need to spend too much time stressing over the numbers,” Hargis said. “As long as we’re making sure the members within our community are having the experience that they’re seeking out to get.”
