While the spring recruitment period for many students is finished for this year, several sororities and fraternities on campus have yet to begin recruitment.
These non-traditional and budding Greek organizations all have recruitment on the horizon and are hoping to gain new members within the next few weeks.
The newest of these organizations is Zeta Beta Tau (ZBT), a new fraternity with Jewish ties whose commitment ceremony Feb. 28 will make them an IFC-associated colony at Elon. It will be the campus’ ninth fraternity.
The organization currently has 29 members who have joined as founding fathers and may have more by the time of the ceremony, according to junior and founding president Garret Mann.
“When we cold call people, we don’t want to tell them it’s for a fraternity yet,” Mann said. “We want to wait until we see them in person, so what we say is, ‘This is a leadership group for quality men who all hold similar values, and the group comes from Jewish traditional roots.’ So you know we have members that are not Jewish. Non-Jewish members join because they genuinely like us and they genuinely are similar to us.”
Another Greek organization with religious ties on campus will also be holding recruitment events this week.
Coming off their National Service Week two weeks ago, Sigma Alpha Omega (SAO), a sorority with a Christian focus, will be recruiting new members from Feb. 25 to March 2 with events like crafts, baking and speed dating to get to know everyone in the group.
Two members of SAO’s national board visited last week and helped put the organization on the same track as the national organization, according to sophomore and president Gina Apperson.
“Our motto is ‘One in Christ through unity in sisterhood,’” Apperson said. “So that basically sums it up. Our mission statement is basically to assemble Christian women in a place where they can provide service, social activities and basically just be in a good environment that fosters scholarship, service and other fun stuff. Basically to grow closer together in our Christian faith and just explore it more, and then to make an impact on our campus and the general public.”
Elon also has two co-ed service organizations that are independent of Greek Life but have Greek names and permit both Greeks and non-Greeks – Alpha Phi Omega (APO) and Epsilon Sigma Alpha (ESA).
ESA held interest meetings Feb. 25 and Feb. 26, according to junior and vice president Krysten O’Hara. New members must submit applications to ESA by March 5.
“ESA definitely gives you a chance to give back to the Burlington community, which I think is a big thing for Elon, that we are part of the community,” O’Hara said. “And we want to get out there no matter what organization you are – you want to interact with the community as much as possible.”
APO, Elon’s service fraternity, had its rush period during the week of Feb. 18. Senior and APO president Alison Miller said the organization typically accepts about 20 new members every rush period, although the amount may be a little lower this semester.
“Our main goal is to provide service for the campus and surrounding community and to provide strong fellowship while making friends in the process,” Miller said.