The National Panhellenic Association (PHA) will be bringing Chi Omega to greek life next Fall raising the campus sorority total to eight. The Nu Kappa chapter will recolonize after their 22 year absence at Georgia Southern.

Nu Kappa was a GSU chapter from 1976-1993 when they decided to dismember their chapter due to low membership, low human resources causing a lull in chapter operations.

The new chapter’s August 17 recolonization and recruitment process will be facilitated by a mix of national consultants, headquarter staff and some national volunteers rather than bringing in existing active chapter members because of the time consuming aspect of recruiting.

“Recruiting is a full time job and we are able to train all of our staff members and national consultants to be ready for this type of undertaking,” Payton Gartman, National Representative and Director of Extensions for Chi Omega, said.

Chi Omega, also nicknamed Chi O, hopes to recruit a member class size consistent with the average chapter size of the existing chapters in 2016 recruitment. They will participate in the first day of formal recruitment – Icebreakers day – on Monday, August 9 as a means of introducing themselves and subsequently drop-out entirely from the recruitment process.

According to Katie Scrudder, PHA Graduate Advisor, the Greek community is stable enough to bring a new chapter to GSU due to an average of 160-180 women withdraw themselves from the recruitment process each year which could equal a good size chapter.

The recruitment process will be open not only to women that went through formal recruitment and did not find their place, but also for freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors interested in becoming a charter class member and the potential opportunities for immediate leadership opportunities.

“These potential new members will be the founders of the Chi Omega chapter at Georgia Southern, and this gives them a great opportunity for leadership,” Elizabeth Christopher, Panhellenic Vice President of Recruitment, said.

Chi O is already receiving positive feedback from students as well as the Greek life community after their social media launch and their campus promotion last week.

“For us [Delta Phi Epsilon], it’s going to be a big adjustment because we are the smallest sorority as of now so I’m really excited for them,” Hannah Watson, freshman biology major said. “I could tell on their faces for recruitment they were really excited for it so I’m all for it, it’s just more sisterly love.”

Chi Omega was founded on six key purposes: friendship, personal integrity, academic excellence, intellectual pursuits, community and campus involvement, personal and career involvement. Their national philanthropy is a partnership with the Make A Wish America Foundation.

Chi Omega has maintained a lot on Greek Row and has a timeline to break ground in 2018 and have the house ready for recruitment in fall 2019, according to Francisco Lugo, director of fraternity and sorority life.

“I would say that it will be a journey,” Gartman said. “It will be a lot of work and time and that’s not to be a bad thing or to scare anyone away, but it will take some investment but the more you invest in something, the more worth it it is and the more your heart is in it and you’ll carry that for so long and so to start something new it does take that courage and to leave their mark.”

Photo courtesy of https://twitter.com/ChiOmegaGSU