Last month, Greek life organization had its rush week and university officials say that Greek life is starting to grow again after the pandemic.

Sixty freshmen, sophomore and junior women all lined up and spent the day with members from chapters of Alpha Xi Delta and Chi Omega.

Although the numbers only slightly increased from last year, sororities are starting to see more growth after the pandemic. 

“While the number of registrations was down, the number of people who stuck with the whole process of recruitment and then actually ended up joining was higher. And I am happy with that,” Katie Yunker, Greek life adviser at SDSU, said.

The overall percentage of undergraduate students involved in Greek life on campus is 4.4%. Out of all Greek life at SDSU, 6% of undergraduate men are in fraternities and 3% of undergraduate women are in sororities, according to Yunker.

Chapter leaders were happy with the turnout.

“We had good retention of the women who signed up, and we got to meet so many wonderful women,” Erin O’Reilly, Alpha Xi Delta president, said.

This year, sororities set up recruitment a little differently from previous years. Recruitment for sororities happened Saturday and Sunday instead of the original days, Friday and Saturday.

According to Yunker, fraternities are also seeing growth since COVID-19 and are growing faster than sororities right now. 

“Fraternities are experiencing an average growth rate of 2%,” Yunker said.

Greek life chapters are also making efforts to help the Greek life community grow on SDSU’s campus. Their main focus is on recruitment and planning certain dates and times.

“We are trying to make what works best for people that want to join,” Yunker said.

Greek life has been active at campus events already this year during the Student Engagement Expo and the Block Party at the Jackrabbit Village.

“We are working on making more of a presence in the community of Brookings and SDSU. We have started marketing more to students for bigger events,” O’Reilly said.

As far as housing goes for Greek life on campus, many of the houses are full right now for sororities and most fraternities. Sophomores and older students can live in their chapters’ homes. All housing for the chapters is fairly new and were built in the 2000s, except for Alpha Gamma Rho, whose house was built in the early 1970s.