National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) has rescheduled the sorority recruitment date from the third week of the fall semester to the first in hopes of giving potential members time to concentrate on academics.

The third week of school is when big tests, homework and projects begin to take place at Southeast, vice president of recruitment and retention of NPC Amy Grandidier said.

She also said some members from the sorority had trouble going out recruiting several hours at night then going to class she said.

“The active sorority women were having a lot of stress being out six or seven hours a night and then turning around in the morning and taking a test,” Grandidier said.

The decision to move the date of sorority recruitment was something Grandidier wanted to do before becoming a member of the National Panhellenic Conference in late November, she said.

She also said brainstorming about how to move the date up began after she assumed her position.

“I was coming up with pros and cons on why it should be the first week of school and the advantages and disadvantages of that,” Grandidier said.

The NPC presented their proposal on Jan. 22, and within a week all of the sorority chapters had voted, she said.

There were two options to do sorority recruitment on the first or the third week of school she said.

Five sororities voted for the first week and two for the third; the results were announced Feb. 29 that it would be moved to the first week she said.

Moving the recruitment date to the first week of school means there will be less time for women to join, which can be a problem, she said.

She also said the NPC is exploring marketing strategies to ensure recruits are educated on the sororities.

“We are creating email campaigns and sisterhood Panhellenic videos to bump up our numbers,” Grandidier said.

Greek life graduate assistant Amanda Rogers said she wants to see what happens next year and hopes the results will allow them to better evaluate the results of the switch.