THE CHAPTER HAD A GREAT SEMESTER DESPITE THE RECENT LOSS OF THEIR HOUSE

By JJ Kowalski, VCU '12

SigEp at Arizona State University recruited 40 men this semester, nearly double their number from last spring. This comes despite the university’s removal of Alpha Drive, the campus’ main fraternity housing area.

Arizona Alpha had one of six fraternity houses on Alpha Drive. Two years ago the campus demolished two of the houses, and last year they claimed eminent domain on the entire row, forcing the remaining fraternities to move.

“A lot of off-campus fraternities stepped up their game and a lot of on-campus fraternities that moved fell off. We adapted extremely well,” said Vice President of Recruitment TJ McCloy, ‘13. “We stepped up our game instead of just staying the same and plateauing.”



“We were so focused on finding the greatest guys,” explained Chapter President Jimmy Audiss, ’13, “and we ended up finding a bunch of them.”

When McCloy took over as vice president of recruitment, he had an idea of what he wanted to accomplish, having served as recruitment chair in the past.

“Delegation of positions and getting more people involved were my biggest goals to start out. Instead of having one recruitment chair, I delegated six and put them in charge of an event each day. That made it run smoother than years past,” said McCloy. “I figured the best way of getting people to take action in their roles was giving them the title,” said McCloy. “It took a lot of stress off my shoulders when it came to crunch time. In past years it got crazy during rush.”

The chapter’s recruitment efforts were more organized this semester, thanks to participation by the whole chapter. McCloy and Audiss agreed that the efforts of additional brothers smoothed the process. Audiss also noted that every brother worked hard to connect with the potential new members.

“We really wanted to reach out and become their friends because we know rush week is awkward and intimidating. We just wanted to mitigate that as much as possible,” said Audiss.

“The main thing was delegation. Our vice president of recruitment did a wonderful job at delegating tasks to the rush chairs, who put in so much hard work and got what they were hoping for from each event. And we had a great time,” said Audiss. “It was very organized and well set-up and was achieved through delegation and accountability.”

The chapter hosted a number of typical recruitment events like barbecues and go kart racing, plus one they call nuclear football, a night-time game using battery-operated Christmas lights and light-up footballs. “It excites me to see so many guys working together to find the best guys on campus, because that’s something we strive for,” said Audiss. “It brings me joy to know our group of friends is growing and we all are striving to live up to the high values our Fraternity is founded on.”

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