The Panhellenic Council has decided to bring a fifth sorority to campus next fall, after the sizes of pledge classes reached record highs last spring.
The Council met last spring to discuss the unmanageability of pledge classes that exceed 40 students, and they began to determine the plausibility of attracting a fifth National Panhellenic sorority to campus.
According to senior Allie Haeusslein, JHU Panhellenic President, the key motivator in this decision was the feeling that pledge classes were becoming less like sisterhoods and more like large groups of strangers.
"The pledge classes last year were astronomically large, and it's unfair for a girl to join a sisterhood and then realize she doesn't even know anyone's name," Haeusslein said.
The Council, which consists of Robert Turning, coordinator of Greek Life, as well as a delegate and an executive officer from each of the four current Panhellenic sororities on campus, voted by majority on Tuesday to go forth with efforts to instate a fifth sorority. The results of the vote were three to one, with Kappa Kappa Gamma (KKG) as the only dissenting vote.
Sarah DePaolo, Treasurer of the Panhellenic Council and KKG delegate, declined to comment on her vote, citing a sorority-wide policy of not speaking with members of the press.
According to Turning, it would be difficult for KKG to support the establishment of a new sorority as they have yet to meet their own quota of 80 sisters.
If the vote holds up over the coming weeks, the Council will begin collaboration with the National Panhellenic Council (NPC), the umbrella organization that supervises the 26 national Panhellenic sororities.
The NPC will announce that Hopkins is accepting applications for colonization from the 22 remaining national sororities.
Turning said that he wouldn't be surprised if all sororities expressed interest in starting a chapter at Hopkins.
"We've always had a lot of interest from national groups, because Hopkins is a great school, and any sorority would be proud to colonize here. Now in particular though, we're the perfect candidate [for a national sorority that is looking to expand], because our percentage of students involved in Greek life is rising immensely," Turning said.
Once the Panhellenic Council has received letters of interest from a variety of sororities, they will invite up to four groups to campus to present their missions to the existing Panhellenic chapters.
According to Turning, this selection process is integral to ensuring that the new chapter will be a good fit with the rest of the Hopkins Greek community.
Although all interested sororities will be given an equal opportunity to present their cases, it is NPC policy to give preference to chapters that have either already existed on this campus at one time, or those that have written formal letters of interest in years past.
This means that Delta Gamma, as the only sorority to have existed and then disbanded at Hopkins, will be given extra consideration if they choose to apply.
"This is sort of like a legacy process. If Delta Gamma has a strong application, we won't take them immediately but we will definitely give them a second look," Turning said.
According to Turning, Ki Omega, Gamma Phi Beta and Alpha Chi Omega have all already written to express their interest in starting chapters at Hopkins.
Once the list has been narrowed down, Turning plans to look to factors such as the presence of Baltimore alumni from each prospective chapter - as they will be crucial in laying the framework for the Hopkins chapter - and the chapters' overall national rankings.
The Council plans to extend an invitation to the chosen sorority by this coming April. The new sorority will begin colonization in the fall of the next academic year, and with the help of local alumni and NPC administrators, it will begin recruiting sophomores, juniors and seniors by September of next year.
According to Turning, this new chapter might experience a slow start.
"The chapter will certainly have those initial growing pains, but it will be attractive to girls who went through formal rush and weren't matched," he said.
Freshman Alexas von Kunes Newton plans to participate in formal rush in the spring. She said that if rush didn't work out for any particular reason, she would still be reluctant to join a new sorority come fall.
"Personally, I wouldn't want to join a group that is still working on getting established," von Kunes Newton said.
Haeusslein said that the small size and growing power of the new sorority will in fact be attractive to a variety of girls.
"This will be a great opportunity for sophomores looking for leadership positions, or those who are turned off by the stereotypes that each sorority already has on campus. This new sorority will offer a clean slate," she said.
