With school officially under way, UW-Eau Claire sororities and fraternities are looking for new members through a process called recruitment or, more informally, “rush.” The organizations, which base their purpose on the bonds of friendship and philanthropy, advertise to students in an effort to get them to join.

This year, 74 girls are participating in sorority recruitment, which will fill chapter’s membership to capacity, said Taylor Townsend, Panhellenic recruitment chair. According to Andrew Ready, member of Delta Sigma Phi and the Interfraternity Council, each fraternity is expecting up to eight or ten new members.

While both Greek men and women are looking for new members to join their bond, Ready said recruitment is different between sororities and fraternities.

“What we do more or less is get ourselves out there,” Ready said. “We hand out a lot of fliers on how to contact us if you’re interested. We try to get in contact with them and let them know this is what we’re doing this week, this is what we’re doing the week after. We don’t have a truly defined period of rush.”

Sorority recruitment is a much different story for fall semester. Potential new members come to recruitment “rounds,” where they meet with sorority members and learn about their sisterhood and philanthropies over the course of one week. During this week, potential new members decide which of Eau Claire’s three sororities they wish to join, and the sororities decide which members they would like to invite to join in return, said Townsend.

“At the end, they have a preference night so they can decide what they really like the best,” Townsend said. “The last day is bid day. We get them all in a room and get them excited, and hand out their bids (offers to join a chapter).”

Ready said fraternity members reach out to the community throughout the first few weeks of the semester, trying to get men interested in joining. The process does not happen with all three Eau Claire fraternities working together. The process is much more individualized, with potential new members approaching the chapter they wish to join. If a potential new member shows interest, they will invite them to more events before extending a “bid.”

While the processes may be different between fraternities and sororities, Townsend said the organizations are founded on and operate around the same principles.

“The pillars that all Greeks follow are leadership, scholarship, friendship, and service,” Townsend said. “Those are basically what each chapter is based off of. It’s what supports the chapter.”

Sophomore Lauren Grover said she is going through recruitment this year because she didn’t last year and regretted missing out on the friendship and service.

“It’s a great way to meet people while doing good for the community,” Grover said. “You can really see they really care about what they raise money for.”

When standing in a room of 50 women talking at rapid speed, it is clear to see recruitment is a team effort. Not only are the potential new members hoping to join, the current members are hoping to impress and increase membership.

“When I went to it, I was so nervous,” said Grover. “But after I met the girls, I realized they were just as nervous as me.”