Rethinking Recruitment: For Equity, Not Ease
Sometimes doing the right thing is difficult. You already know that. But there’s something you may not have considered. With our current M.O. of recruiting members to our organizations, creating equity is not always easy.
The 2020–2021 school year hasn’t been a breeze, to say the least. Even with 2021’s arrival, most of the time, next week still looks like a question mark.
You can view this time as an obstacle OR as an opportunity to rethink recruitment in ways that are more equitable—across race, ethnicity, gender, social class, and sexuality and more.
You’re on board? We love to see it.
Ease = No Change
It’s easy to hit repeat or use the same strategies we’ve always used. Shoot, many of them have proven (short-term) success. Ease doesn’t get us where we need to go. In fact, doing what’s comfortable upholds the barriers that prevent access to our organizations.
Costs
With concerns about recruitment, you could increase fees to make up for gaps in the budget. Could that work? Sure, for those who can afford it. But who are you pushing away from the community? Forget pushing away; who are you pushing out of your community by making membership more expensive?
Connections
When we can’t rely on face-to-face interactions or interest events with potential new members, it would be natural to rely on existing connections and social media channels.
This creates the perception (and sometimes reality) that you have to “know someone to get in” to FSL organizations. Need examples?
legacy policies
zip code preferences
high school preferences
These examples (and others) mean we are marketing to people we already know. This isn’t. creating any new channels or audiences to grow your organization. What this does create is another bias in the recruitment process and furthers existing assumptions about who is and isn’t welcome in fraternity/sorority life.
Conformity
With everything you have going on, you may be tempted to hit repeat on your marketing collateral, especially with the photos. However, if everything looks the same as it did last year and you’re showcasing the same members, how are you attracting a wider variety of people to your community? If you keep showing the same things and same people, you start to build conformity in how people look, dress, act and live.
Equity = a more sustainable future
Instead of ease, try centering equity, which we know can require thinking and doing in new ways.
This will create better practices for the future of your organizations and increase pathways for first-generation college students, students from poor and working-class backgrounds, and students across all kinds of identities.
Costs
Consider how you can reduce the financial burden of pursuing membership in a fraternity or sorority organization
During Recruitment
If you have a recruitment registration fee, can you lower or eliminate it?
If you usually suggest types of clothing for recruitment events, can you show and encourage with wearing what you have?
If you typically hold recruitment events on certain days, are there plenty of dates and times to allow those who work to attend?
Don’t forget to share any scholarship opportunities within your organization. That can help level out the dues for some folks!
During Membership
If some of your local dues go to non-essential operations, can you temporarily make cuts to the chapter budget to provide everyone some economic relief?
If you have real or perceived expectations for members to donate to philanthropic projects or purchase for big/little items, be transparent about those costs and reflect on whether or not those are necessary.
Connections
Real talk: You need members for your organization to survive, so you can’t just offer membership to friends and family of existing members. You have to intentionally cultivate expanded recruitment pools. When you do that, you open up the chapter to new perspectives, ideas, and talents.
Think about how we pair recruiters and potential members initially: people who come from the same hometown, played the same sport, major in the same college, etc. Sometimes we assume if people have similar experiences we do, we will connect with them easier.
That might be true. It also might make our organizations homogenous, one dimensional, and well, BORING. As you think of strategies to reach out to potential members, think about how to reach new populations.
Could your institution provide a list of first-generation students you could contact?
Have you considered partnering with the LGBTQ center on your campus?
Could you wear your letters to a Black Lives Matter protest?
In short, how are you reaching students with no prior connection to FSL and sharing information about recruitment?
Conformity
Expand the perception of a fraternity or sorority member. Instead of looking for a specific type of person, broaden that perspective to welcome all people who want to live your values.
Don’t expect potential new members to “know the process” of becoming a fraternity or sorority member. Explain what that looks like, especially now that it looks different. Give potential members some grace when they might not know what your philanthropy is or understand the difference between councils or Greek letters. See “quirky” interests or unique experiences as assets to your chapter, instead of reasons that person won’t fit. Reframe the narrative of who fraternity and sorority members are.