From the first time you find yourself alone in the cafeterianeeding to find new friends to sit with to finding out that whatyou thought was your Biology 1301 class is actually a higher-levelphilosophy seminar, the first week of college can be a series ofuncomfortable moments for any first-year student.

Added to this heap of discomfort, many first-year women planningto go through sorority recruitment may have faced anotherpotentially uncomfortable situation — making an appearance ina bathing suit.

As part of First Weekend activities, Panhellenic hosted a poolparty at the university pool. While the party wasn’tofficially intended as a recruitment event, the winter ritualcouldn’t have been far from the minds of the first-year womenthat attended.

As a rule, sorority members face a whole set of rules thatrestrict their contact with first-year women during the fallsemester — they can’t invite them to their parties;they can’t share a meal with them; they can’t even ridein the same car.

Events hosted by Panhellenic are the exception to this rule.First-year women and sorority members alike are able to talk andmingle freely. So whether a Panhellenic-sponsored event is arecruitment event or not, first-year women will inevitably see itas an opportunity to meet other girls involved in sororities.

The guidelines often seem mechanistic, but their intent isappreciated. Limiting contact in order to give all first-year womenan equal chance to improve their recruitment chances is anopen-minded gesture.

It gives creedance to the claim that recruitment isn’tabout who’s the most fun at parties or who drinks and whodoesn’t.

With this in mind, it seems a little thoughtless for Panhellenicto host a party where first-year women face concerns over theirrecruitment chances and their body images in one social event.

We don’t intend to suggest that the party was planned thisway intentionally, but these insecurities drawn together can leadto dangerous assumptions about the nature of recruitment on thiscampus.