Being in a fraternity or a sorority on campus can be expensive, but even in a down economy Creighton’s Greek life had a successful recruitment.

Eric Immel, associate director for Greek life at Creighton, said money is one reason why someone may not want to join a fraternity or a sorority.

“Certainly, cost is a factor,” he said. “You do pay dues to be in a fraternity and those dues go towards all the programming that the fraternities and sororities do.

“The prices are in the hundreds of dollars a semester, so if a student wasn’t able to pay for it we certainly would never encourage them to go through the process because it just wouldn’t be a smart choice.”

However, even with a down economy, Immel said fraternities extended bids to 106 new members this year and sororities extended bids to 234 new members. The fraternities had 158 people register and the sororities had 285.

“It was a big year for Greek life, the biggest numbers we’ve had as far as I can tell,” he said.

Molly Hayes, Arts & Sciences senior and former vice president of membership for the Panhellenic Council, was in charge of meeting with the recruitment chairs from each sorority.

She said planning for recruitment is a yearlong process, but much of the work begins in October. This year’s recruitment was the most successful recruitment she has seen at Creighton.

“It was good to see so many new people find a match,” she said. “I couldn’t have been any happier.”

Hayes said she was grateful for her position on the Panhellenic council and she was glad everyone worked hard to make recruitment a success.

“Everyone gave 200 percent,” she said.

Zach Sutton, Arts & Sciences junior and former vice president of recruitment for the Interfraternity Council, was in charge of advertising for recruitment.

He said he thought the down economy might lead to fewer prospective fraternity members, but it didn’t.

“We tried a bunch of new advertising techniques,” he said, including holding informational meetings in freshmen dorms.

Sutton said that moving registration for recruitment a week earlier also allowed more people to join.

Andrew Hanson, Arts & Sciences senior, was the recruitment chair for Phi Kappa Psi, said the fraternity saw lots of new applicants. Hanson said the goal for his fraternity’s recruitment process was to “— portray the personality of our fraternity.”

In addition to traditional events, such as the fraternity’s traditional game of broomball, Hanson said they brought in Shawn Collinsworth, the executive director of Phi Kappa Psi.

“You could call him a well-known Greek in the national Greek community,” he said.

Immel said that a number of factors go into a successful recruitment, including good planning and a sense of “fair play.”

“I think it’s important that groups respect each other, that they don’t hinder each other’s ability to recruit new members,” he said, ” and I think we’re pretty good about that at Creighton, overall.”

Immel, who started working at Creighton last July and experienced his first recruitment at Creighton this year, said recruitment helps students discover which communities at Creighton are best for them. Immel said everyone seemed to enjoy recruitment this year.

“Nationally, we are higher than most universities in terms of retaining women through the recruitment process,” Immel said. “I guess what I would say about the men’s process is I don’t how you couldn’t have fun. You’re eating free food, you’re hanging out, you’re just trying to get to know a good group of guys, hopefully.”

“Thanks to all the guys that went out,” Sutton said. “I’m glad they’re having the chance to experience it.”