Recruitment

What is Recruitment?
Recruitment is a time for Potential New Members (PNMs) to get a better understanding of the sorority and our sisters. Over the span of a couple of weeks during the beginning of the semester, our chapter holds around ten independent events for PNMs to meet and connect with our active sisters.

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The last event of Recruitment is a formal interview, which a PNM may qualify for if they attend one Informational, the ICGC MC&EP, and two other recruitment events. The interviews serve as a way for our sisters to get to know the PNMs on a professional and personal level and if their personal values align with the sorority and its mission.

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What is the ICGC MC&EP?

The required Intercultural Greek Council (ICGC) Membership Clearance and Excellence Program (MC&EP) is an event that teaches topics such as the history of cultural-based Greek letter organizations and their values, as well as the dangers of hazing and how to prevent it from happening. Both current members and PNMs of ICGC are required to attend this event to protect against hazing.

 

 

What are the recruitment events like?

Our sisters will host two informational sessions about the sorority, our role in the community, and our current sisterhood. PNMs must attend one of these sessions but may choose which one based on what fits their schedule best.

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Beyond our informational sessions, we host events based on our different pillars, such as Adopt-a-Highway to represent service, study sessions to represent scholarship, and workshops on professional development to represent leadership.

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We also do events such as painting and making crafts, playing board games, and getting food together, which serve as laid-back ways to bond with the sisters. PNMs may choose which of these events they attend, depending on their schedule and their interest in the activity.

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What happens after Recruitment?

After the final recruitment event of interviews, the sisters will decide whether or not a Potential New Member will be given a bid. If given a bid, the PNM can then decide if they will accept. If the bid is accepted, the Potential New Member will become a New Member, and the New Member Process will begin.

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What is the New Member Process?

The New Member Process is a time for New Members to learn about our sorority and to develop the necessary skills to be an active sister, which include professional skills that may be used beyond the sorority. We also place an emphasis on getting to know active sisters and other New Members.

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Will the New Member Process take up too much of my time and affect my grades?
Taking part in the New Member Process is a serious time commitment, but our sisters will help you improve your time-management and organization skills so that you may take away all of the valuable lessons of becoming a New Member while still maintaining academics and participation in other activities. As college students, the sisters of aKDPhi feel that one's academics are of primary importance, especially with scholarship being one of our pillars.

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At JMU, ICGC requires its members to have at least a 2.5 GPA to be able to participate in active life. JMU aKDPhi has an Academic Chair who monitors not only the academic performance of our New Members, but those of our active sisters as well. Although it sounds intimidating, every single aKDPhi sister has gone through the New Member Process, and every active sister of our chapter has been able to maintain staying above the required GPA while being involved in the sorority.

 

What is hazing, and does aKDPhi haze?

The Code of Virginia defines hazing as "to recklessly or intentionally endanger the health or safety of a student or students or to inflict bodily injury on a student or students in connection with or for the purpose of initiation, admission into or affiliation with or as a condition for continued membership in a club, organization, association, fraternity, sorority, or student body regardless of whether the student or students so endangered or injured participated voluntarily in the relevant activity."

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alpha Kappa Delta Phi has a strict no-hazing policy. aKDPhi's New Member activities are meant to prepare New Members for the responsibilities of active life in our sorority without risking the well-being of our New Members or current sisters.

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As of 2022, Adam's Law protects all members of Greek organizations, new members and current members alike, in the state of Virginia from hazing. We take this legislation very seriously, and we will never ask a member to sacrifice their safety or dignity.