Penn State Panhellenic and thousands of women across campus are preparing for the start of fall sorority recruitment this week. This round of recruitment is sure to be an interesting one as the number of potential new members continues to grow every year. As predicted, the 2016 fall recruitment will be the largest Panhellenic has ever seen, with 1,819 potential new members. That’s roughly 200 more than ever before.

While some may attribute the increase in numbers to the largest freshman class in history, the influx is something Panhellenic was already expecting.

“We are very excited that our community is growing,” said Panhellenic President Madeline Strasser. “We have been anticipating this growth, and with the addition of our 22nd sorority Delta Phi Epsilon this year, sorority sizes should stay around the same as they have in the past…even with the added numbers.”

Delta Phi Epsilon will be represented in the open house portion of recruitment but will not participate in formal recruitment otherwise. It will have its own recruitment process in the weeks following formal recruitment, similar to how Phi Sigma Sigma handled its first year on campus.

In addition to DPhiE being represented at open houses this year, the three associate Panhellenic chapters will be represented as well. Besides including the these chapters during open houses, Panhellenic is making no other changes to the recruitment process despite the increase in numbers.

For many, the addition of DPhiE comes as a relief. Without the inclusion of a new chapter, already enormous chapter sizes would increase dramatically due to the 200 potential new members participating in recruitment this year. While a significant number of potential new members decide greek life isn’t for them, the increasing size of recruitment is inevitably going to change the number of girls in each pledge class.

For now Panhellenic and it’s chapters can push that concern to next year and enjoy the 12 days of recruitment until bid day.