A later Greek recruitment made many freshmen more comfortablewith their decision to join a fraternity or sorority.

Jami Crawford was one of these freshmen who appreciated theextra month to settle in.

“I was glad it was later, it wasn’t so rushed and I was moreeducated going in,” said Crawford, who pledged Kappa Kappa Gamma.”It gave me a chance to talk to sorority members and see how thecampus as a whole views them,” Crawford said.

Crawford isn’t alone in her positivity about the late start.

“The informal feedback that I’ve gotten so far [suggests] theyreally liked that it was later and that they didn’t have to do itall at once,” said Jennie Cisar, assistant director of studentactivities for Greek life and leadership.

Evan Schaefer, Interfraternity Council vice president ofrecruitment, said he prepared 48 bid packets for the fraternities.This number is up from last year’s 40 prepared bids.

Cisar said 40 women pledged a sorority this year, a declinecompared with last year. However, Alpha Chi Omega is currently inthe process of reorganizing and recruiting. Their results willchange the final number.

For some students, the late start created a conflict withschoolwork and homesickness.

“Some of the challenges could be school work, if students thinkthey have too much schoolwork…they might think they don’t haveenough time,” Cisar said. “Another challenge could have been …that it was over a weekend – a lot of students said they wanted togo home.”

Amanda Springer, vice president of recruitment for thePanhellenic Council, cited a longer preparation process andconflicts with schoolwork as challenges for organizers ofrecruitment.

A series of surveys and focus groups will address thesechallenges.

“We’ll be doing focus groups with students, alums,administrators, all sorts of people,” Cisar said. “We’ll be doingfocus groups starting in a couple weeks [for] a couple months.[We’ll include] new members, initiated members, all the differentgroups that we possibly can to figure out what we need to improveon.”