From what freshman Tiara Heard hears, DePauw's greek houses have great food, designated times to eat and thus can help you save money on your meal card. But besides those reasons, she couldn't think of many other advantages of going greek.
"There was nothing about it that stood out to me [about] why I should join it or be a part of it," Heard said of greek life.
Heard chose to be independent because she didn't know much information about the sororities and fraternities at DePauw. Additionally, she thought that space issues at greek houses might be uncomfortable.
"At the same time, I don't think it's easy for you to express your discomfort," Heard said.
She believes that the best part of being independent will be not feeling as though she must accommodate to other people's likings. She also feels that she will have more freedom to be herself and won't feel forced to assimilate into different things.
However, Heard did acknowledge that there were some downsides to being independent.
"You feel kind of distant and left out at certain times," she said.
Still, Heard, along with several other freshman girls, chose not to pledge this year. She thinks that some people may have come to campus already knowing that they didn't want to go greek and others may have felt that they couldn't be open on a one-on-one level during recruitment.
Heard does believe that DePauw will still have a majority of greek students in the future, though.
"Next year, they will try harder at recruitment to get larger numbers," Heard said of the greek recruitment numbers.
Annie Bowers, junior and president of Independent Council, agreed.
"I just can't see the numbers decreasing significantly," she said.
Bowers chose to remain independent her when she and her group of friends knew they didn't want to join houses. She thinks that it is becoming more acceptable to be independent at DePauw.
"[Being independent] doesn't really say anything about you. It just says you didn't want to join a house," Bowers said.
Since Bowers has a mixture of friends who are both independent and greek, she says that being independent helped her to remain friends with all of them. She also thinks that being independent gives her more freedom, since being greek takes up time.
"I take all that time and I do a lot of other stuff with it," Bowers said. "You have more time to devote to other issues."
In regards to greek recruitment numbers this year, Bowers said that DePauw recruits a number of different people each year, so it may have been that more people in the group were inclined to be independent than usual.
"It has to be your individual decision," she said.
Greek Life Coordinator Eric Wolfe has the opportunity to help students make decisions in regards to greek life. Although the work can be challenging, Wolfe finds giving that advice quite rewarding.
"I really enjoy working with students and going through that process," Wolfe said.
Wolfe specializes working with the Interfraternity Council and Multi-cultural Greek Council. He believes that from a staff perspective they councils are improving training and monitoring the messages of the greek houses' skits and performances.
"I feel like we're getting better in terms of getting more organized," Wolfe said.
He said that there were some bumps in the road first semester about getting the word out and raising awareness, but said that during formal recruitment, the staff was more organized and that the Rho Gammas did a great job.
In terms of the lower recruitment numbers for women this year, he noted some statistics about the freshman class.
"As I understood the situation, we had fewer women in the class. Secondly, the number of eligible women was lower. Your pool is smaller from the get go," Wolfe said of the factors.
Still, just under 69 percent of DePauw's population is affiliated with a greek house.
"I don't know 100 years from now where our system will be," Wolfe said.
Wolfe said that in the foreseeable future, over 50 percent of DePauw's population will likely be Greek. But in the distant future, it depends on whether or not fraternities and sororities are able to change with time, especially considering that they are built on lots of tradition.
Wolfe hopes that the recruitment numbers will increase and remain consistent with what students want, especially if they do a good job of portraying why it is a positive experience.
"I'm hopeful that our numbers will go up as the messages improve," he said.
Faculty members also see the impact of the greek system. Anne Harris, professor of art and art history and director of the Women's Studies Program, isn't sure whether the numbers of greek recruitment will increase or decrease over time, but she doesn't believe that fewer members of sororities and fraternities would be any harm to the DePauw community.
"What makes DePauw DePauw is that students are willing to talk to each other across boundaries," Harris said.
Harris believes that greek recruitment numbers were relatively low this year since DePauw has been nurturing more ways for people to create groups in the community.
Although Harris doesn't have many ways of knowing whether her students are greek or independent, she said there a variety of topics that connect the campus together. Because of that, everyone is involved in one way or another with the greek system.
"Everybody's worried about sexual assault. Whether they're greek or not, everybody wants to know about flower-ins," she said of some connecting topics.
Harris attended a women's college where there were no greek houses, but she sees a lot of advantages for multi-cultural greek organizations, such as the Latina and African-American organizations.
"I'm really impressed with the multi-cultural activism," Harris said.
Harris does believe that the mainstream houses should be involved in more activism, not just philanthropy. She also believes that sororities are still relevant for women in this day and age.
"I think they provide leadership opportunities for women and I think that's terrific," Harris said.
Harris has a few hopes for the greek system. She wishes sorority women would claim control of social spaces, particularly in terms of party locations since fraternities currently have sole control. She would also love to see fraternities and sororities form an allegiance to confront sexual assault.
In addition, she hopes that DePauw will continuously become more varied in its organizations. Harris said she would happily welcome an expansion of the way students group themselves at DePauw.
"Imagine a DePauw where one year, you're living in the Eco-Criticism house and the next year, you're living in the Women in Global Economic Development house," Harris said. "It would be a richer place."
