By Herman Mays | Guest Contributor
Greek Life recruitment can feel confusing or overwhelming, yet the University of Lynchburg offers structured and flexible opportunities to make the experience smooth for students.
Greek Life recruitment at Lynchburg operates in two primary forms: Formal Recruitment, often referred to as Rush, and Informal Recruitment, known as 365 Recruitment for fraternities and Continuous Open Bidding for sororities.
Director of Campus Engagement, Emily Velilla, said, “I think a big misconception is the time commitment and how formal it is… rather than what people sometimes think of recruitment as a big, crazy process, it is a lot more flexible.”
Understanding the differences between Formal and Informal Recruitment can also be difficult.
Senior Nursing Major and President of the Pan-Hellenic Council, Caroline Marotta, elaborated on the differences between the Formal Recruitment and Informal Recruitment for sororities and stated that, “Continuous Open Bidding is open to anyone who has a GPA and is a lot more laid back and features things like sister dates, while Formal Recruitment is more planned out with events… and each chapter does two days of events and it’s only a week long.”
Fraternity recruitment follows similar goals but slightly different rules under the Interfraternity Council, which oversees all fraternities on campus.
Senior Sports Management Major and President of the Interfraternity Council, Jack Marotta stated that, “Formal Recruitment has some more rules than 365 Recruitment or open bidding does, but they are both still governed by the same things like grade requirements and other eligibility… for Formal Recruitment or Rush Week you have a week of events that are open to the general public, but these events also have to be approved.”
With Formal Recruitment coming up next semester, all three interviewees said that students shouldn’t be afraid to attend events and that they would recommend joining Greek Life to anyone who asked.
