The university has seen the largest number of women joining sororities since 1991, and has a new sorority starting Monday.

Delta Phi Epsilon will be the first new Panhellenic sorority on campus in 20 years.

Andy Morgan, acting associate dean of students and coordinator for fraternity & sorority life, said SIU’s Panhellenic Association invited all the National Panhellenic Conference sororities to apply to become a part of the SIU community. Two gave presentations at the university last spring and a commitee chose Delta Phi Epsilon.

Advertisement

Emily Lind, president of the Panhellenic Association, said the success rate of Delta Phi Epsilon was the reason for choosing it over Alpha Sigma Tau.

“They seem to fit better for our campus and seem to offer a better advantage,” she said. “Over the last seven years every time [Delta Phi Epsilon] has tried to start a chapter on a college campus they’ve succeeded. They’re attempting to have 100 chapters in the next two years, and they’re currently at about 90. Coming to SIU is helping towards that goal.”

The Panhellenic Association at SIU also consists of Alpha Gamma Delta, Delta Zeta, Sigma Kappa and Sigma Alpha.

“Our current sororities are very strong, academically and through serving the community,” Morgan said. “They’re very competitive, so having someone new to help raise the level will be advantageous to everybody.”

Lind said Delta Phi Epsilon wants to have 50 members.

“The other sororities have 80 to 90 members, so 50 is a really good estimate for the first semester,” she said. “They’ll start their process next Monday.”

Morgan said each of our Panhellenic sororities have seen a rise in recruitment this year. He said Alpha Gamma Delta, Delta Zeta, and Sigma Kappa each added 36 members this semester.

Advertisement*

Lind, a senior from Herrin studying studio art, said this could be because of scheduling changes.

“Usually sorority recruitment takes place in the first weekend of school, but this year we pushed it back two weeks to allow people more time to sign up,” Lind said. “It gives girls more time to assimilate on campus before joining something so big. We think that by allowing girls to be here for two weeks and think about it, that helps us out a lot.”

Brent Meske can be reached at [email protected] on Twitter @BrentMeske_DE or at 536-3311