Current and potential members of the greek community will rush to campus this weekend for the first annual Go Greek Barbecue to kick off fall recruitment.
"We have never done anything quite like this," said Suzie Luplow, Panhellenic Council vice president for external affairs. "This is an opportunity for potential members to see us all in our element having fun and to be in a relaxed setting rather than at an information session."
The barbecue will be from 5-7 p.m. on Sunday at the Rock.
"We wanted to expand recruitment opportunities by having an event on campus," Luplow said.
"All four councils will be there to get together and get to know each other. That doesn't happen too often."
The greek organizations include the 29 fraternities governed by the Interfraternity Council, the 13 sororities governed by the Panhellenic Council, eight historically black fraternities and sororities governed by the National Pan-Hellenic Council and the four multicultural men's and women's organizations in the 4th Greek Independent Council.
Each council will have general information available and individual greek chapters will be represented, said Interfraternity Council Vice President of External Affairs Jim DiVita.
"We do want to stress that this is an alcohol-free event," said Luplow.
"We are really excited for this event. It will definitely bring a sense of community to the campus."
Luplow said about 1,000 non-greeks are expected to attend, in addition to more than 2,000 greek community members.
"The barbecue is a major joint recruitment effort," Vice President for Internal Recruitment Allison Amrine said. "This is the first fall event besides Greek Week that really invites community involvement."
The Panhellenic and Interfraternity councils organized the barbecue to fulfill one of the three goals major goals for this year.
"We have been advertising for the barbecue in the dorms and around campus since day one of fall semester and we are looking for more opportunities to connect with other organizations, like RHA and ASMSU and with campus in general," interim Greek Life Coordinator Amy Radford said.
"We are trying not to just focus our efforts on off-campus events and living."
Other goals for the year include an extension of the women's recruitment process and assistance with fall move-in at residence halls around campus.
Video Day, is new to the seven-day women's recruitment process, Amrine said.
Each chapter house will show a 10-to 15-minute video featuring events and information about the sorority.
"Women new to the community and current members expressed the need for an extra day to make their decisions," Amrine said.
"So we created another day inside the chapters houses for women to feel out what it is like to be a member."
Council members also plan to increase greek involvement in Homecoming and work with the Service Learning Center this year, Radford said.
"We are looking ahead to the next five years rather than making smaller changes for the present," Amrine said.
"We are taking risks and evolving to bigger and better things."
For more information about the greek fall recruitment process visit gogreek.msu.edu or call (517)353-2965.
