Penn State’s Panhellenic Council is adapting quickly to a changing Greek life landscape, especially in its annual formal recruitment process.

For Panhel’s second year of spring semester formal recruitment, 1,400 women participated — a figure comparable to last year, when 1,595 women registered for recruitment and 1,355 eventually participated in Open Houses.

It was immediately apparent that Panhel needed a bigger space to accommodate Bid Day, when those participating in recruitment are welcomed into their new sorority chapters. Fall formal recruitment traditionally culminated in a Bid Day on Old Main Lawn, but that’s not exactly feasible in the midst of a State College winter.

Panhel tried to accommodate all the current and new members into Alumni Hall last spring, but it quickly became overcrowded and overheated. Shortly after recruitment, the organization began to look into alternate venues, and eventually decided on the Bryce Jordan Center.

“The decision to move bid day to the BJC was because of its larger capacity and would be more safe for all of our members,” said Annika Anthony, Panhel’s new vice president of communications. “Each sorority had their own space and it was not over crowded.”

Panhel coordinated with the BJC to work around the Penn State Athletics schedule and make the organization’s Bid Day vision a reality.

“We also made huge efforts to enforce a values-based recruitment, making sure chapters promoted the overall Greek community,” Anthony said.

Part of this involved an added “reflections” time to the formal recruitment process, which allowed those rushing to “think about their selections without being influenced by others.”

Most sororities headed back to their South Hall digs with their new members after Bid Day, but one lucky chapter broke in its new home — Phi Sig announced a move to the former SAE fraternity house downtown.

Change is on the horizon for Panhel, and this appears to be just the beginning.