eGreek Forum Newsletter

by Corinna Romantic, PHC VP of University and Community Relations

On Saturday, April 3rd from 1:00-2:00pm, the Panhellenic Council sponsored an Easter Egg Hunt in the Ithaca community. The event was for members of the Big Brothers Big Sisters Program of Ithaca. Because of the overwhelming demand for "Bigs," there are many unmatched "Littles."

The Big Brothers Big Sisters Program created a Saturday program for all "Littles" who are not matched so that they can interact with the college students who volunteer as "Bigs" for the afternoon. The hunt was specifically for these children who are currently unmatched.

Members of the Panhellenic Council stuffed and then hid almost 300 eggs at Stewart Park. There were 20 children between the ages of 4 and 14 who, when released to begin searching for eggs, were filled with smiles and laughter.

The children loved searching the area for the eggs and the members of the Panhellenic Council received equal satisfaction knowing that the children were having fun. We hope to make this an annual event with the Big Brother Big Sisters Program.

by Maricela Perryman, VP Formal Recruitment

In December of 2008, Cornell’s Panhellenic Council was one of the first to vote in a two-tier Total system, which means there are different Totals set in the fall and the spring semesters. Fall total for 2008 has been 108 since 2005.Total for the past spring recruitment was set as average chapter size. However, due the drastic difference between average chapter size and Total in the fall, Panhellenic decided to reevaluate Total for the fall of 2010.

A vote was proposed for March 17th to raise Total to 118, average chapter size for the fall. Two-thirds was needed to pass, but the vote was not passed. However, a vote for April 21st was re-proposed to once again vote for Total to increase to average chapter size, and this time passed.

During discussions about Total, Panhellenic Council considered largest chapter size, average chapter size, and median chapter size for the new Total. However, all the women felt most comfortable with 118, which was the average chapter size. Smaller chapters might be nervous about the effort to recruit more, which is why other numbers were not chosen. However, with the new Total size, this will increase the opportunity for women to join our Panhellenic system, which is great for the Greek community as more chapters will be eligible for COB (continuous open bidding) recruitment in the fall.

Sometimes convincing chapters to participate in COB recruitment is difficult but since more chapters will be eligible to participate, this will help add a more positive outlook on fall recruitment and open up our doors to more interested potential members.

by Nora Allen

This month has been an exciting month for Panhellenic that has brought many new opportunities! 

On May 5th we will be voting on Extension and the possibility of bringing another Panhellenic chapter to the Cornell campus.  The entire campus seems to be buzzing about the possibility and we are all eagerly awaiting the vote! 

This year we also launched a new Sister-Sister program that paired 4 sororities together at a time to develop and plan a sisterhood event for the entire community.  We recently had an extremely successful event that every Panhellenic chapter came to and we are looking forward to our next event this May that will be a barbeque with MGLC! 

Our Executive Vice President, Virginia Tyrone, and I are also working on a 2-year New Member Education Strategic Plan which we are very excited about and hope will help re-vamp our process.