While the entire Simpson College community grieves the loss of a fellow student, friend and fraternity member – Simpson’s Panhellenic Council has made the executive decision to reschedule their fall recruitment. 

Recruitment was originally slated for the weekend of Sept. 10-12 but has been rescheduled to the weekend of Oct. 1-3. 

Senior Abby Ruby, president of Simpson’s Panhellenic council, says the decision was made in part to ensure that those in Greek Life have time to grieve, and those interested in joining Greek Life get the full experience. 

“Recruitment takes up a lot of time and energy. There’s a lot of preparation for it since it’s very structured, and there are a lot of rules that go into the process,” Ruby said. “We decided to push it back to allow an authentic experience between Potential New Members and members in the house, and to give everyone enough time to grieve.” 

Senior Emma Thul serves as the president of Simpson’s Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter; she says the reschedule was an important and necessary change in order to shed light on the importance of mental health. 

“We came to this conclusion in light of recent events, and how we’ve seen first hand the effect it’s had not only on Greek Life, but the entire Simpson community,” Thul said. “We value allowing our members the time and space to grieve and therefore are pushing back events related to recruitment for the well-being of their own mental health.”

Associate Dean of Students Rich Ramos shared that fraternity recruitment dates did not change and will wrap up on Thursday, Sept. 16th. 

“The men’s process is considerably less formal than the women’s process, which requires much more planning and structure. In terms of the timing of the process, it was decided by all of the chapters that we keep the timing the same,” Ramos said. “In light of recent incidents on campus, after talking with the leadership from all of the women’s chapters, the decision was made by all of them to modify the schedule […] I think it was beneficial to move it to make sure the chapters had adequate time to prepare and be ready to welcome new members to their organizations.” 

As the Simpson College community continues to mourn alongside Greek Life, Simpson’s Counseling Services office is open for all students every weekday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m on the second floor of Kent Campus Center. Students can schedule appointments by emailing the nurse’s office at [email protected] or calling 515-961-1332.