To the Dartmouth Campus Community,
The Panhellenic Council and Sigma Delta sorority are excited to announce that Sigma Delta will be piloting a shake-out program
during Winter Recruitment this year. While Panhellenic Recruitment will go on as scheduled, Sigma Delta will not be included in the houses that each Rho Chi group visits, and will instead hold a parallel rush process in coordination with EKT's shake-out schedule.
Women who are eligible to go through Recruitment this winter can participate in both the Panhellenic Recruitment process and the Sigma Delta
and EKT processes. Rho Chis will have information about both of these houses in addition to houses participating in Panhellenic Recruitment, and women seeking further support or guidance during the recruitment period should feel welcome to contact the Panhellenic
Recruitment Team.
To introduce their new pilot program, the Executive Board of Sigma Delta has provided a statement explaining their rationale
and providing details about the way their shake-outs will be run, excerpted here:
We intend to change our winter recruitment period in order to further the evolution of the Greek system
toward becoming an inclusive group of people of all backgrounds, races, socioeconomic statuses, classes and genders. There is inevitable exclusivity incorporated in any group, especially one with limited membership, but we feel that it is our prerogative to
continuously strive for improvement. We intend to pilot our own system for selecting new members that authentically represents the ideals of our house.
The problems that we have identified with the recruitment process include: (1) PNMs have very little agency in the process and are unable to
self-select houses and communities with which they best identify or in which they feel most empowered; (2) the existing process caters to outgoing women and disadvantages shy and introverted personalities; (3) the current deliberation process favors women
who know sisters prior to entering recruitment and we do not have the autonomy to restructure recruitment to ameliorate this effect; and (4) as a local sorority, it is our prerogative to recruit new members to our house in a way that aligns with our values
and the parameters of formal recruitment inhibitive.
Our pilot will address these four areas by: (1) hosting open houses and letting PNMs determine how much time they want to spend in Sigma Delta
to get to know our house and make an informed decision; (2) reduce the stress of "rush conversations" by removing the time constraints of the current process; and (3) requiring sisters to be at all open houses in order to promote the creation of authentic
relationships with women who previously did not know each other.
This program will run parallel to formal recruitment and in tandem with Theta, so that there are only two separate processes for PNMs to understand instead
of three. We will highly encourage PNMs to participate in formal recruitment, as we cannot guarantee a bid to everyone, but they do not need to participate in formal recruitment in order to shake-out at Sigma Delt. This
program asks the PNM to take more initiative in finding a house that fits them well than formal recruitment, but it also allows her more autonomy and flexibility. It will consist of two parts: open houses and shakeouts.
Open House: There will be three open houses scheduled to work with the schedule of formal recruitment. All sisters of
SD will be required to be present during these events, but PNMs will be allowed to come when they want and for as long or short a time as they want. We want to give PNMs a chance to meet us and learn more about SD on their own terms without adding more stress
to their already busy schedules. No deliberations will occur around these events. Sisters of SD will be asked to keep track of women they speak to during these events and, if they hit it off, reach out to them independently of recruitment (in accordance with
Panhell's Recruitment Code of Conduct) to form a lasting relationship. The hope is to create genuine relationships with women across campus, both those who will be in our house and those who won’t be – thereby strengthening the Panhellenic community (and the
community of women at Dartmouth in general).
Shake Outs: This event will occur on the day between Round 2 and Pref Night. Women who are interested in SD will be required
to be present (except in the case of extenuating circumstances) and write their names down to express their interest in SD. All PNMs who wish to be in Sigma Delt, must express interest at this event, only after then will we deliberate on them. A shake out
signifies interest in SD, but not a commitment to join if offered a bid.
Deliberations: We will deliberate on the women in order to determine to whom we will extend bids. We have changed our
internal deliberation process to eliminate the ranking or assigning of numbers to women.
Bid Offers: That night, after deliberations have concluded, we will extend bids to between
10 and 20 women. PNMs will have until 10pm on Pref Night (Tuesday, January 19) to accept or decline their bid. Accepting a bid from SD means that the PNM must drop out
of formal recruitment and they will not receive other bids.
Best,
The Panhellenic Council
Jordyn Turner, President
Kate Healy, VP-Operations
Sarah Koulogeorge, VP-Finance
Carly Schnitzler, VP-Policy and Research
Samantha Cheng, VP-Policy and Research
Carene Mekertichyan, VP-Community Outreach
Jessica Zischke, VP-Community Outreach
Annie Huang, VP-Public Relations
Bridget-Kate McNulty, VP-Public Relations
Sarah Young, VP-Recruitment
Abbey Hartley, VP-Recruitment