The largest group of girls going through
recruitment in Ole Miss history nervously wait on the steps of the Lyceum to
receive their bid cards during the last day of NPC Formal Recruitment
2013.
It is no surprise
that enrollment at the University of Mississippi is steadily growing each and
every year. Between being named Most Beautiful Campus for the second
consecutive year by the Princeton Review, constant renovations to on-campus
infrastructure, and dramatic growth to its journalism and engineering schools,
Ole Miss is becoming a highly sought after college to many students all around
the world. The most obvious area in which the increasing enrollment at Ole Miss
seems to be showing the most lies within the university’s Greek system.
Greek Life at the University
of Mississippi is one of the most talked about systems in the SEC as well as
one of the most talked about in colleges all over the United States. According
to the Office of Greek Affairs, one-third of all undergraduates participate in
Greek life at Ole Miss. One new sorority and three new fraternity chapters have
already been added to the system this past year, and a second sorority chapter
is set to be active starting in the fall of 2015. Although both the
Interfraternity Coucil (IFC) and the National Panhelleic Conference (NPC) are
impacted by the increasing enrollment, NPC sorority recruitment is where the
university sees the largest impact.
According to the
National Panhellenic Conference, 1,300 girls participated in formal recruitment
at Ole Miss in 2012 while only 814 girls participated back in 2004 – a 57
percent increase in a short nine-year period. In 2013, there was a record high
seven percent increase in overall enrollment from 2012, the twentieth year in a
row that enrollment has increased at the University of Mississippi. Since
roughly one-third of undergraduates participate in Greek life, as total
enrollment continues to increase, so will the number of freshman going through
the recruitment process each year.
Assistant Dean of
Students Coulter Ward states that the “extension process is very much needed on
our campus. The numbers are just too high for the current nine Panhellenic
sororities to keep working with.” Ole Miss’ existing sororities approved
moves for an extension process back in the spring of 2013, and
expansions will continue to be made for as long as the university feels
the need to keep adding new chapters to keep up with the increasing enrollment.
Alpha Delta Pi has
already joined the Greek community as the tenth sorority on campus. In the fall
of 2015, Alpha Phi will become Ole Miss' eleventh active sorority. Some
students believe that the university is adding too many new chapters
too quickly, while others are very happy with the rate at which new houses
are being added. Regardless, Ole Miss’ goal is to add up to five new sorority
chapters in the coming years.
Ole Miss staff member
Debbie Myers, Membership Advisor for Phi Mu Alpha Delta chapter, discusses her
views on the expansion of Ole Miss’ Greek life.
