With both the movement to abolish Greek life and the pandemic hindering membership numbers, several Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Association organizations extended recruitment into Spring Quarter through continuous open bidding.
COB, an informal recruitment process, allows fraternities and sororities to hand out bids at their discretion. This year, PHA sororities recruited exclusively by COB and IFC fraternities shifted to a COB process starting Spring Quarter.
For sororities, the decision was necessary after Panhellenic Association’s canceled formal recruitment because of concerns about virtual recruitment and the uncertainty of chapter status due to the Abolish Greek Life Movement.
Spearheaded by an anonymous Instagram account and as part of a larger national reckoning, the Abolish Northwestern Greek Life Movement led to mass deactivations and calls to disband in the past year.
Associated Student Government abolished its guaranteed Panhellenic Association and Interfraternity Council seats in its April 28 session.
It marked the first time in at least three years in which PHA and IFC wouldn’t have any guaranteed representation in the Senate.
Only one senator, the Northwestern College Republicans representative, voted against the amendment, according to senators present. The amendment was authored by former PHA Senator Pamela Chen, and sponsored by then-ASG President Juan Zuniga and 13 other ASG members.
Chen, a former PHA senator whose term expired April 1, said she was grateful that the amendment passed with a lot of Senate support.