🎧Under the Tuscaloosa Sun🎧
If we analyze our recruitment systems 10 years after we graduate, what will we think about them? Will we think we did the best we could to get to know potential new members, or would we laugh a little at the intensity and structure of it all? Do our processes really give students the best chance to get to know others and make a decision about lifelong membership? Kate Kennedy, host of the podcast “Be There in Five”, is an alum of the fraternity and sorority system and has a unique, nuanced perspective on the experience – including a reaction to the Alabama RushTok documentary we all watched this summer. Listen to this episode “Under the Tuscaloosa Sun” and consider the questions below. Let us continue to provide the best experience possible to our potential and current members by questioning why we do the things we do, and how we can improve them.
Guided listening
7:15 min: Kate Kennedy asks, "What was a function of your expectations for this documentary versus what is actually here in regards to material?," and this could be asked of all people trying to understand the complexity that is panhellenic recruitment.
Question: What expectations or pre-judgments do we go into the recruitment process with and how do we allow ourselves to adjust or get rid of those expectations once we're in the actual experience? How do we let go of our assumptions of recruitment? DO WE LET GO of our assumptions when we find a different story presenting itself?
7:50 min: "This isn't a story going inside the ritual and ridiculousness of recruitment. This is a story about young women seeking identity through organizational affiliation."
Question: As people responsible for welcoming new members into our organizations, how do we ensure that the 'ritual and ridiculousness' of recruitment does not overshadow our efforts to make meaningful connections with potential members? What do we need to assess or change about our efforts to meet these members with curiosity and a real chance to determine if this organization is a place they will feel supported, challenged, and welcomed?
10:30 min: - “(The documentary) left no opportunity to go deeper and truly understand the sorority experience. We're missing the opportunity to dig into things that matter. We're struggling to focus.”
Question: Is it difficult for new members to understand the sorority experience, because current members haven't been given the tools to focus on what is important to their chapter/community? How do we prepare current members to tell their stories and give them a point of view?
20 min: "It's interesting that organizations who present inclusivity and belonging exist within a fundamentally exclusive system that is designed to encourage as much sameness as possible."
Question: In what ways are you inviting difference and encouraging authenticity within your recruitment experience? How are you allowing for individuality in your membership selection decisions?
50 min: “My heart goes out to people that are so dependent on third-party for personal validation… and when they don’t meet those metrics what do they have?”
Question: When students come from a high school setting that sets them up to only find their own value through third-party validation like straight A's or a sports trophy, how do we help them discover their worth through the recruitment process? If our system is set up to measure the value of someone's belonging, how are we also providing them with the tools to be confident in their own skin?
Follow Up
Kate says, “The story we want to hear will never be best told by potential new members in the process." A similar sentiment came from several different groups after the release of the documentary. Fraternity and Sorority alumni, student affairs professionals, and industry experts seem to agree that the best people to tell the fraternity/sorority story are the members. So what’s getting in our way? Let’s encourage Rushtok, and Reels, and storytelling. Let’s open up the experience for those who are sitting on the outside wondering, “could this ever be for me?”.
We know this documentary prompted a lot of conversations that need the voice of a member. What conversation do you want to start, as a professional or as a student, about this process? Where should we look to improve this experience? You can start small, like the conversations or outfits we are focusing on; or you can start big, like why are we using this system to find new members in the first place? Just start somewhere, because your voice matters.
Kate Kennedy
Kate is a Chicago-based entrepreneur, author, podcast host, and pop culture commentator.
Website: Be There in Five
Author Photo by Kate Kennedy, Bethereinfive.com