{"id":2726,"date":"2016-03-17T08:00:45","date_gmt":"2016-03-17T12:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/?p=2726"},"modified":"2016-03-17T08:00:45","modified_gmt":"2016-03-17T12:00:45","slug":"students-react-to-addition-of-kappa-delta-to-centre-sororities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/2016\/03\/17\/students-react-to-addition-of-kappa-delta-to-centre-sororities\/","title":{"rendered":"Students react to addition of Kappa Delta to Centre sororities"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY SHRUTI RAM – STAFF WRITER<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

It seemed like just yesterday the idea of another sorority joining Centre\u2019s campus was little more than a rumor. However, after the sorority presentations, and the recent announcement that Kappa Delta has been chosen to colonize on our campus, students are more excited than ever about the changing dynamics of Centre\u2019s Greek life. The Cento<\/em> wanted to explore how students and members of the extension committee felt about Kappa Delta joining Centre\u2019s Greek community.<\/p>\n

Centre\u2019s Director of Greek Life, Alycia Tidrick, is excited about the extension process coming to a close.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Extension process up to this point has been a fun, but very busy, experience,\u201d she shared,\u00a0\u201cI think it has allowed our Panhellenic community to unite in pursuit of a common goal and people are really excited to welcome a new organization to campus,\u201d she said. \u201cWhile we\u2019ve determined which organization will be invited to colonize, the journey is really just beginning.\u00a0 Many more adventures lie ahead as we prepare to welcome Kappa Delta to campus and support the new group in the years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tidrick shared that the office of Greek Life is in the process of working with Centre\u2019s Communications Office and Kappa Delta on a PR plan and formal announcement.<\/p>\n

First-year and Beta Theta Pi member Michael Leopold is excited about the new sorority.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m really excited for the new sorority and for new service opportunities and charities,\u201d he said. \u201cIt’s a great opportunity for Centre and the women on campus. The ratio of fraternities compared to sororities has been off for some time now, so I think it will finally achieve some balance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea of a new sorority is exciting to unaffiliated women on Centre\u2019s campus as well, who see it as an opportunity to change their mind about Greek life.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing unaffiliated, I’m actually very excited,\u201d First-year Talei Cody said. \u201cI see it as an opportunity to be a founding member of a new sorority or use it as another way to gauge my interest for the other, [existing] sororities\u00a0on Centre\u2019s campus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alpha Delta Pi was the last sorority to colonize Centre\u2019s campus in 2001, and Tidrick feels that Centre students are excited at the prospect of another Greek organization on campus, reflected in the high turnout rate for the sorority presentations.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, I think that students seem to be excited,\u201d she said,\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s been over 15 years since we last added a new sorority to our community, so this is a very unique and special opportunity for our students.\u00a0 There also seems to be quite a bit of support for the new organization\u2014we had over 100 students attend the presentations last week, and I think that\u2019s a sign that they\u2019re invested in this process and are eager to see what the new group has to offer to our campus community.\u00a0Hopefully that support and enthusiasm will carry over into next fall [as] support from current students will be critical to the success of the new organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

One thing\u2019s for sure, adding another sorority into the mix promises to shake up recruitment the coming year.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing is final yet [concerning recruitment],\u201d Tidrick said, \u201cwe will work with Kappa Delta representatives throughout the spring and summer to finalize a colonization and recruitment plan, but tentatively we anticipate that they will colonize in the Fall and will have the opportunity to extend bids to upperclass women during the Fall semester.\u00a0We anticipate that they will fully participate in formal recruitment in Spring 2017, so we will be working with the Sorority Recruitment Council to make necessary adjustments to the recruitment schedule to accommodate the addition of another group.<\/p>\n

Sorority members have mixed feelings about what to expect from recruitment after Kappa Delta comes to Centre in the fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think [Kappa Delta\u2019s colonization] is a great way to open up and diversify Greek Life on Centre\u2019s campus,\u201d senior and Delta Delta Delta member Becky Barefield said. \u201cMy friends on the extension committee have talked about how Kappa Delta wants to focus on having a diverse chapter, not just in terms of ethnic diversity, but also in terms of interest groups on campus, such as the Bonner, Grissom and Posse scholars. As a senior, I won\u2019t get to see it [play out], but it seems they have an awesome plan for recruitment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barefield also shared that the addition of Kappa Delta should increase the competitiveness of the recruitment process on the sorority side.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it would be good to decrease class sizes,\u201d she said, \u201cbut I think in addition adding another moving part to recruitment, Kappa Delta seems to have a very aggressive approach to recruitment,\u201d she said. \u201cThey are going to be looking for the same positive qualities that the other organizations are looking for too, and instead of allowing the chips to fall where they may, it\u2019s going to make all the sororities more aggressive about recruitment. I think some niches are going to move around after Kappa Delta arrives.\u201d<\/p>\n

One sorority member, who would prefer to remain anonymous, had concerns about how recruitment would be affected by the new chapter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m apprehensive about how this will affect sorority recruitment,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it will be stressful to have small class sizes after having big ones for the past few years. However, I want to do whatever I can to welcome the new sorority to campus, and I\u2019m interested to see how Greek life changes in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, students seem to feel positively about the addition of a new sorority to Centre\u2019s campus, even if sorority members have to anticipate how it will affect formal recruitment. Only time will tell how the sorority will change the dynamics of Greek Life at Centre, but it seems students, both Greek and non-Greek, are excited about the changes they may be able to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY SHRUTI RAM – STAFF WRITER It seemed like just yesterday the idea of another sorority joining Centre\u2019s campus was little more than a rumor. However, after the sorority presentations, and the recent announcement that Kappa Delta has been chosen to colonize on our campus, students are more excited than ever about the changing dynamics […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2726\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}