LA BETA FOCUSES ON YEAR-ROUND RECRUITMENT

Seth Irby, Louisiana State, '11

For the Louisiana State Chapter, spring 2011 is a semester of milestones. April 8 will mark the chapter’s 50th anniversary on campus, and this achievement is not the only cause for celebration. Standing at 167 men strong, Louisiana Beta is the largest chapter on campus for the first time in its 50-year history.

Vice President of Recruitment Ross Garbarino, ‘13, said the success was a result of challenging the norms of LSU’s Greek community. He explained that most chapters on campus recruit one new member class in the fall and wait a whole year to recruit more. Only three of 20 fraternities on campus recruited this spring. “Our chapter decided if we were offering the best development experience on campus, let’s eliminate the biggest barrier to entry: timing,” he said.

While the chapter has often been one of the largest on campus, the adoption of year-round recruitment has pushed it over the top. The chapter runs its formal fall recruitment process and spends the rest of the year recruiting individuals who weren’t initially drawn to Greek life. The result? In the spring, the campus’s recruitment offseason, recruitment efforts have added six brothers and counting.

Alex Walton, ’14, didn’t pursue a fraternity in the fall because of his workload as a quarterback on LSU’s nationally ranked football team. “I would not be in a fraternity had SigEp not given me the opportunity to join after the season,” Walton explained. SigEp’s flexible development program and focus on making him a better student made the chapter a perfect match for Walton.

“Alex’s situation is the perfect example of why we recruit the way we do,” Garbarino said. He explained that Louisiana Beta’s new approach is a win-win scenario. He continued, “Alex has a chance to reap the benefits of our development program and our chapter ends up with a student-athlete who wouldn’t have had the chance to join otherwise.”

Louisiana Beta isn’t wasting any time celebrating in the top spot. Garbarino used the first sigma challenge meeting of the semester to instill in the new members what makes this chapter so successful. He gave an hour-long recruitment seminar, teaching the six new members how to continue recruiting, and left the session with eight additions to his potential new member list.

“If we plan to be the largest on campus for the next 50 years, then we better remember recruitment is 365-day process,” Garbarino said.

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