A New House at Ole Miss

The increasing student population of the University of Mississippi has led to many challenges for the Panhellenic Council. More girls then ever before are participating in formal recruitment or rush. The rounds are now longer and the ranking process has slowed down. The pledge classes are also growing larger and causing a strain on the traditionally small chapters. Members of the Panhellenic Council have been working on a project that will hopefully alleviate some of the problems.

Alex Dejoy is on the Panhellenic Executive Council and also serves as the Vice President of Public Relations. She maintains the website, Twitter, and Facebook page for Panhellenic.

“Essentially, I am the face of the council,” Dejoy said. “I am in charge of all the interviews regarding the council and correspond directly with people in the community and other universities wanting to work with us.”

Dejoy has personally experienced the challenges brought on by the increasing student population. She is in charge of collecting the schedules for all girls going through formal recruitment and recording absences in the rounds. Her job has become much more time consuming due to the increase. Dejoy and the other members of the Panhellenic Council have been working on a solution for the recruitment problems.

The Panhellenic Council has been working on an expansion project to bring a new sorority house on campus. The proposal originated from a survey done at the sorority houses about their views on adding an additional sorority. The council voted for the addition, and the proposal was then sent back to each sorority house for a vote. Earlier this week, the expansion proposal was passed by the chapters.

“The last step in the expansion is that it needs to be approved by the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs,” Dejoy said. “The expansion is not completely official yet, but we should know in the next few weeks.”

Bringing a new house onto a campus with already strong chapters can be challenging. It will require the support of the existing houses for a new house to survive. Details concerning the location of the new house or the name of the new chapter have not yet been released.

“If a new sorority comes to Ole Miss, they will not participate in recruitment until 2013,” Dejoy said. “Adding a new house will hopefully help with pledge class sizes and alleviate some of the pressure sororities are feeling.”