This Saturday, about 500 girls will have to choose between attending the second sorority recruitment Welcome Day or 10Fest.
The two-week long formal recruitment began with informational meetings Wednesday night and will continue this weekend with Welcome Days on Friday and Saturday and house tours on Sunday.
On the first day of recruitment in previous years, girls visited all nine houses in one day. However, this year, Welcome Day has been split up into two days, so girls will visit three houses Friday night and six on Saturday.
“Welcome Day was long and stressful for chapter members and women going through recruitment. Hopefully, splitting it up will make the transition easier for everyone,” said Kaci Durham, president of the Women’s Panhellenic Association.
Recruitment dates have been decided since last April. To choose the dates, the Women’s Panhellenic Association looked at OU’s academic calendar for Homecoming and Parents Weekend dates.
“When I first found out that 10Fest would be at the same time as recruitment, I was nervous because OU is known for its parties and fests,” Durham said.
However, as girls started registering, Durham became more confident that girls would choose recruitment over 10Fest, she said.
More than 500 women have registered for recruitment, which is the most it has been since 2004. WPA has been utilizing Facebook and Twitter to talk with girls, answer their recruitment questions and get them excited about the process.
“We did try to work something out with the coordinators of 10Fest, but in the end, we decided not to change our whole schedule just to accommodate a fest,” Durham said.
Jasa Stone, a freshman whose major is undecided, is choosing to go to 10Fest instead of rushing.
“I want to try as many new things as possible, and there is always informal recruitment if I decide that I want to go Greek later in the year,” Stone said.
Other freshmen had a different take on formal recruitment.
“From the beginning, I was dead set on going Greek,” said Katie Rush, a freshman studying international business and marketing. “Hopefully these next four years will weigh out going to one fest.”
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