Ole Miss Greek Life Expands as Enrollment Increases

 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.