You are invited to attend Recruitment Week 2011.
What to bring: Panhellenic shirts, hairspray, and lip gloss
Where: Hughes Trigg ballroom
RSVP: Patty Panhellenic
Tuesday Jan. 11, 2011 the campus was in a flurry of activity, as 506 of Southern Methodist University’s young woman got ready for Day 1 of Panhellenic Recruitment Week. The air in the South and North Quads buzzed with the hum of blow dryers, the sizzle of straightners, and girls giggling with anticipation. At 3:45 p.m. you could hear girls asking each other the usual questions: How does my hair look? Pearls or diamonds? Are you sure this headband works? Are we all ready? And with that doors slammed shut and we were off to battle, sorority war!
Walking into Hughes Trigg everyone was greeting each other with, “Girl! You look soooo cute.”(Don’t lie you know that’s what you did PC ‘11) The most hilarious part of the scene was that no one knew what was going to happen. Personally, I believe that Panhellenic likes to keep PNMs (potential new members) in the dark for as long as possible to see just how many outrageous rumors can pop up.
After being corralled into the auditorium we met our Rho Gamma’s (Sorority woman who have disaffiliated to guide the PNMs through the process). Besides helping us make decisions and being our mentors during the week the Rho Gammas had to try and keep all of us chatty girls quiet. Kudos to them because they did really well!
Once we were settled in with our nametags on, cell phones turned in, and valuables in the classiest of Ziploc bags we were all ready to mingle. One by one the Rho Gamma groups walked to their first house. At exactly five minutes till 6 p.m. we were all lined up alphabetically standing outside the houses. Sorority row became eerily quiet. Three minutes till 6 p.m. all the Rho Gammas shouted, “Three minute warning!” At that all of us had to take off our coats, throw them on the grass, and shiver in the 24-degree weather.
Finally 6 p.m. came and all the sorority doors opened simultaneously and all you could hear was door chants. Delta, Delta, Delta… We are the Delta Gammas… I L.O.V.E PI PHI… Hoora for Kappa… THINK Theta… Give your heart to Chi O… G Phi G Phi B… Alpha Chi till the day I die…
One by one we were ushered into the warm houses. Each of the PNMs talked to what felt like hundreds of girls at all the houses. All of the girls were so nice and conversations flowed so well that fears diminished and we just started to talk and laugh. Each house was so wonderful many of us could not help but fall in love with every single one, but at the end of the week we would only end up with one, the perfect one!
Bid Day came and as we all ripped open our envelopes there was such a loud joyful response. Panhellenic always says that the system works and from what I saw during Recruitment week it did.
Thank you Patty Panhellenic and Congratulations PC 11′ girls!
Moriah Momsen is a first year majoring in mechanical engineering. She can be reached for comments or questions at [email protected].
