Q&A with HPU Director of Greek Life
Sorority bids were extended on Jan. 21 in the Slane Student Center gym. Photo by: Lona Williams
By Veronica Fulton// Organizations Editor
With recruitment season just ending, the Campus Chronicle sat down with Teri Cugliari, director of Greek Life on High Point University’s campus, to get a behind the scenes look at sorority recruitment.
Q: What does your job entail?
A: My job entails complete oversight of the Greek system. I have written and developed educational curriculum, the Greek Summit, the new member education series, an emergent leaders workshop, and things like that. I also handle crisis response – when there are instances I make sure they are adjudicated and followed up with. We are in charge of meeting with National Organizations on a regular basis, and all of the Greek housing.
Q: Why is recruitment second semester?
A: The University wants the students to work on their academics and adjust to collegiate life [during their first semester]. Right now, we feel like this is the best decision for our students.
Q: How does the recruitment process work?
A: We follow all the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) rules and agreements, so we utilize the release figure method, which NPC says all of their 26 organizations follow. Basically the release figure method is a yield figure. We look at statistics from about three to five years to predict how many people will go to each chapter based on returns each night. Just like how a university may want 1,000 students, they will accept 1,800 because they know about 800 of them will choose other places. It is a mutual selection process, so the potential new member (PNM) must say they like a chapter, and the chapter must say they like the PNM. Just because a PNM ranks a chapter their least liked, does not mean they would not be invited back to that chapter, because they may still match.
Q: How many girls have gone through recruitment this year?
A: I believe we started with about 468 this year. It is lower than last year, because we started with 511 last year. The year before that we had 470, so, I think last year was the anomaly.
Q: Why does Sorority recruitment take place across two separate weekends?
A: We do this because of the interference with the academics that occurs. Because of the amount of women participating in this process, it would be impossible to do this process during the week; we need the time. We can’t interfere with students’ academics like that.
Q: What are Pi Chi’s and how do they work?
A: Pi Chi’s are recruitment counselors. They are active sorority women who disaffiliate from their organization during the recruitment season. Their job is to remain impartial and navigate the recruitment process.
Q: What is the Panhellenic Council?
A: Panhellenic Council is the governing board of the sororities on campus. It is the local version of the National Panhellenic council. They oversee recruitment and make sure the process runs in accordance to NPC rules. The executive board is made up of one member from each sorority on campus. Each sorority also has a Panhellenic delegate and representative.
Q: What do you think of the shift this year from Skit Night to Sisterhood Night?
A: Skit Night was removed by the NPC, because while skit was fun, it was also exhausting and extremely time consuming. Skit night did not really give you any substance about a sorority, it just made you laugh. I like the addition of sisterhood round, because it is more about who you are as an organization and why someone should join your chapter.
Q: What is your favorite round of recruitment?
A: I think the first round, Sisterhood, is my favorite because you get to go to every house. Everyone is dressed the same, you can see the excitement on the potential new member’s face, and it is just a very cool opportunity to see all of the sororities on our campus.