Steve Davis
Malika Ramadhina and Franny Hilliard at Bid Day Celebration
After years of struggle, membership in fraternity and sorority life is finally increasing. Since 2020, FSL on campus has seen a decrease of over 50%. After formal recruitment in January, FSL gained more members than in the last formal recruitment season, implying an increase in interest and participation.
Fraternity Chapters
New Members Winter 2024
New Members Winter 2025
Beta Theta Pi
6
7
Phi Gamma Delta
9
9
Sigma Chi
4
Chapter suspended October 2024
Sigma Nu
0
3
Tau Kappa Epsilon
3
4
Sorority Chapters
New Members Winter 2024
New Members Winter 2025
Alpha Sigma Alpha
0
0
Delta Delta Delta
3
3
Kappa Kappa Gamma
2
7
Pi Beta Phi
1
6
The table above shows an increase in FSL new members from Winter 2024 to Winter 2025. Fraternity membership grew by 13.64%, while sorority membership increased by 66.67%.
According to Fraternity and Sorority Life Advisor Corgan Ball, this increase could be a result of a few different reasons.
“I believe this year we’ve placed a stronger emphasis on showcasing the values, leadership opportunities, all the things that FSL offers,” Ball said.
Ball also said that active members’ experiences in fraternity and sorority life were highlighted more to potential new members. Additionally, Ball believes that because of the change in the style of formal recruitment for sorority life this year, it became more accessible.
“The recruitment is more flexible for potential new members. There’s no mandatory events they have to attend to be eligible, it’s really just come and meet people however it fits in your schedule,” Ball said.
Cost has been a lasting barrier to participation in fraternity and sorority life, but Ball says that this year there was more commitment to financial transparency for all chapters.
“Really seeing that broken down can be super helpful because I know financials have been the biggest impact on why a lot of people are not able to join fraternity and sorority life,” Ball said.
Although this increase in participation is a positive for the future of fraternity and sorority life, there is still a significant decrease in membership over the last few years. Assistant Dean for Campus Life Jake McLean says that bringing more attention to the fraternity and sorority life within chapters is important for participation to continue to increase, which can be done in multiple ways.
“Covid did a number on our orgs across the board on campus. [In] the fraternity and sorority life space, we’ve been on kind of a mission to talk more about the fraternity experience,” said McLean.
McLean says that when chapters are displaying their values in their activities, interest in the FSL experience is more likely to increase.
“When we are living our values, when we are doing the work of our organizations, that in itself generates excitement because they see you doing things, they see you wearing letters,” McLean said. “That way, when a photo drop hits pre-recruitment, it’s not just a fake photo-op.”
McLean further stressed the impact of financial barriers and how that prevents chapters from regaining the number of members they had pre-COVID.
“We are a very small group that requires membership fees, because they can join any other group for free, so that’s definitely a piece of the puzzle,” McLean said.
McLean also said that improvements to the facility and meeting spaces could also significantly garner more interest.
“We’ve done a couple of different things in small ways to help the jaunt from campus to ‘sorority row.’ Work could still be done to improve that area of campus, and so updating facilities and doing some of that sort of stuff could help,” McLean said.
Additionally, McLean said that how chapters talk about themselves and others is a huge factor in how the student body views fraternity and sorority life. He also believes that if events were held on campus instead of at chapter houses, there would be higher attendance.
“I’ve long joked with previous presidents to move events. Come to where students already are. I think that helps with the community’s visibility,” McLean said.
On March 14, Vice President for Student Development MarQuita Barker announced the decision of the Alpha Sigma Alpha international headquarters to close the Theta Nu chapter at Knox, effective immediately.
“It got really difficult at the end mainly because it was kind of left to me and a small group of us, so it was definitely difficult,” said senior Lana Gallagher, who had been a member of Alpha Sigma Alpha since the winter term of her freshman year.
During formal recruitment, Alpha Sigma Alpha did have people express interest in joining, but it wouldn’t have been enough to keep the chapter open.
“To rush them into something like executive positions is incredibly unfair, especially when there are such amazing chapters on campus that have a lot of resources. We felt that it would be wrong to allow them to join the chapter even though we wanted it to continue in a way,” said Gallagher.
Gallagher also says the lack of members and resources contributed to the difficulty in encouraging interest in the chapter.
“We don’t have a lot of funding, we didn’t really have a lot of education in terms of how to successfully run the chapter, and I think all of that stemmed from the people that came before us and their responsibilities that they also let fall through the cracks,” said Gallagher.