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Interested in Going Greek?
There are many options, choices, and ways to go about looking for the right organizations for you. Some organizations target certain times of the year to bring new members, and other groups focus on a year round recruitment process. Whatever group you are looking for, you need to remember a few simple things. First you must have a 2.5 GPA, second an open mind, and third be prepared for a great experience!
How to Join Greek Life?
Campus Life Night
At the beginning of each academic year, Grand Valley has a large event in the Fieldhouse Arena known as Campus Life Night. Each student organization has a table with information and gives you the opportunity to meet members and as questions. All fraternities and sororities have information tables during Campus Life Night, so this gives you an awesome opportunity to check out all of the organizations. Please contact the Office of Student Life at (616) 331-2345 for more information about Campus Life Night.
Recruitment
At the beginning of each semester, each council will begin to have recruitment events to bring new students into the fraternity/sorority community. Two councils do this more visibly, the IFC and PA councils sponsor primary recruitment periods. These recruitment periods are designed to give an interested student a good idea of what all the chapters do on campus, and what group they will fit with best. The two recruitment periods are generally at the beginning of the fall and winter semesters.
Membership Intake
The BGC and MGC groups seek new membership on a chapter level, not as a council. For this reason the council does not plan a formal recruitment process. The organizations are still under the same GVSU recruitment guidelines but no regulations are made by their councils. Intake is a recruitment process aimed at finding quality members all year round. The individual chapters will host information nights for interested students to come and hear about their group, but at any event feel free to ask a member of a Greek organization and they can tell you how to become a member.
Fraternity and Sorority Life Overview
Coming to Grand Valley State you will have the opportunity to join a community through Greek life that is more than any normal club experience. Greek Life is an experience that will make a long-term impact on your life and the first step is finding your home. Across four different councils (BGC, IFC, MGC, and Panhellenic), you have the opportunity to join one of 30 different Fraternities or Sororities that will help build your leadership skills and foster lifelong friendships and networking opportunities during your time at Grand Valley.
At this point, the next question is How do I join? For each of the four councils, there is a different method to go through recruitment. If you are interested and looking for more information, there is information below on each of the 4 councils and we encourage you to fill out an interest form and check the social media of all organizations that interest you so you can keep updated with recruitment in the near future.
Black Greek Council
Joining a BGC Organization
The Black Greek Council or BGC for short is comprised of 8 organizations at GVSU. This council's organizations are often referred to as the "Divine Nine".
Students interested in joining a National Pan-Hellenic Council organization (BGC) participate in a process called intake. BGC organizations host a number of various events throughout the school year that introduce students to their different organizations.
Each fraternity and sorority in the BGC takes in new members at different times and through different manners. Interested students should visit the organizations LakerLink page as well as social media to find information on upcoming events and contact the group they are interested in for more information.
Interfraternity Council
Joining a IFC Fraternity
The Interfraternity Council (IFC) at Grand Valley consists of 8 National fraternal organizations if you are looking to join one of our social fraternity’s on campus and build connections that will last a lifetime, look no further!
The IFC has many benefits to joining, aside from the social aspect of Greek Life, members of the IFC community get the chance to participate in many other extracurricular activities such as Intramural sports, Community service, philanthropic events, and many more.
IFC Recruitment, by nature, has an open 365-day recruitment schedule, however, A bulk of the new members will join during one of the two separate recruitment periods (Fall & Winter Recruitment). Both Recruitment periods begin at the start of their respective semester and run for approximately one month.
Throughout this time the IFC chapters will each be hosting their own recruitment events open to any and all students interested in joining a Fraternity. During this time potential new members are encouraged to visit and experience each chapter so that they can find a chapter that they connect with and can see themselves excelling in.
Multicultural Greek Council
Joining a MGC Organization
The Multicultural Greek Council or MGC for short is comprised of 4 organizations at GVSU. Students that are interested in joining MGC participate in a process called intake. Each fraternity and sorority in MGC takes in new members at different times and through different manners. Interested students should visit the organization's social media pages to find information on upcoming events and contact who they are interested in for more information. Listed below are the currently active MGC chapters on Grand Valleys campus.
- Delta Phi Lambda
- Phi Iota Alpha
- Sigma Lambda Gamma
- Sigma Lambda Beta
National Panhellenic Conference
Fall 2020 Recruitment Registration
Joining an NPC Sorority
The Panhellenic Association at Grand Valley consists of 10 NPC (National Panhellenic Conference) sororities. Individuals can join a sorority at GVSU in one of two ways.
Fall Recruitment:
The primary recruitment process takes place in September and occurs over a span of two weekends. The primary recruitment process allows potential new members to visit all ten of our chapters over a span of four rounds. Those interested can register at (link to be added in the summer). There is a small cost of $30 associated that covers the cost of transportation to Greek housing, a t-shirt, and pizza. For fall recruitment, Download our Guidebook app and Register (Fall 2020 Link coming Soon). Contact our Vice President of Recruitment at gvsusororityrecruitment@gmail.com for more information!
After the conclusion of primary recruitment, chapters may recruit via continuous open bidding dependent upon their chapter’s total membership count. This occurs in a more structured manner during the month of January, which is known by the council as Winter Recruitment. It cannot be guaranteed that any or all of the ten chapters will offer bids in this manner. No registration is required for continuous open bidding or for winter recruitment. Follow our Instagram @gvsupanhellenic to hear updates on when these events will occur!
Winter Recruitment:
The Informal Winter Recruitment process is very different than our Formal Fall Recruitment. Recruitment is based on each individual chapter's need to reach our campus total. Because not all sororities fall under campus total between the fall and winter semester, not every chapter participates. Unlike Formal Recruitment, Winter Recruitment is individually hosted by each chapter instead of our Panhellenic Association. You can find out which chapters will be participating in Winter Recruitment at the beginning of the winter semester. Events such as Meet the Greeks or Campus Life Night 2.0 are a great opportunity to meet members from each chapter and find out which sororities will be recruiting. Further recruitment events hosted by the chapters are advertised at these events, on individual chapter social media, and our Panhellenic Association website.
