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Volume 126 Issue 1
Thursday, August 22, 2013
kansan.com
WELCOME BACK
LEARN TO BE A HAWK
University welcome-week packed with activities for all students
KRISTINA MAUDE
kmaude@kansan.com
As summer winds down, students aren't ready to jump into a full week of classes and studying just yet. Thanks to Hawk Week, students can spend their first week at the University having fun all across campus while getting to know fellow students.
Hawk Week is the official welcome to the University according to Christina Kerns, coordinator for the Hawk Week program.
"It is designed to present new students with everything that the University has to offer, and help them build valuable connections to fellow students, faculty, staff, as well as the opportunities they will have as students," Kerns said.
Hawk Week isn't just for new students though; it's a week that everyone can look forward to. It's a time where students can go to events with old friends and meet new ones.
After moving in on Friday morning and meeting with their respective living communities in the evening, students can start Hawk Week off with free food, bowling and prizes at the Rock Chalk Block Party at 8:30 p.m.
"Hawk Fest is an easy way for new students to learn about and get involved in student organizations," said Drew Harger, a junior from McPherson and Hawk Week leader. "Tables line the parking lot
of Adams Alumni Center, where 75 of the nearly 600 student organizations at KU hand out free giveaways and recruit new members."
There have been celebrity sightings at the event in the past.
"The KU Spirit Squad and Pep Band perform as well," Harger said. "Last year, I snapped a picture with U.S. Olympic gold medalist and KU student Diamond Dixon."
of the best events of the school year," Jeffrey Sondag, a Hawk Week leader and senior from Lafeyette, Calif., said. "For many students it is the first time they get a real feeling of pride for their school as
"For many students it is the first time they get a real feeling of pride for their school..."
Traditions Night will follow Hawk Fest at 8 p.m. Traditions Night is easily one of the most anticipated events of the week.
"I think traditions night is one
JEFFREY SONDAG Senior, Lafayette, Calif.
learn and experience some of the traditions our community has created over the last century and a half. Being able to share these traditions with a new wave of students
gives me a sense of pride just as big as the one they experience and reminds me just how lucky I am to be at a college I love so much."
Following Traditions Night, there will be a Night on the Hill concert
featuring the Hood Internet.
Sunday features a day where students from the different schools at the University can meet faculty and students and learn about extracurricular activities related to their major. Common book discussions will be held at locations across campus at 4 p.m., where students all across campus discuss the 2013 common book—Timothy Egan's "The Worst Hard Time."
"The chancellor speaks as well as representatives from every school about what the academic goals are for the year," Sondag said. "There is a great aura surrounding the event and it gets everyone excited about
At 7 p.m., Convocation is held at the Lied Center. Sondag referred to it as the official kick-off to the academic year.
their studies."
Activities continue throughout the week to inform students about all the University has to offer. One new activity this year is a ball pit that will sit outside of the Kansas Union hosted by the Office of Institutional Opportunity and Access.
Sondag advises incoming freshmen to attend Hawk Week activities that he and his colleagues have worked hard to set in motion.
"Members of this community have built this week specifically to make you feel like this is home and that you've been here for years," Sondag said. "Go to the events and give us the opportunity to welcome you to our community."
Edited by Elise Reuter
IMPORTANT DATES
Aug. 27
Aug.25
Aug.26
Money Mayhem
11 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Kansas Union Fourth Floor
Aug. 28
Kansas Soccer vs. Pacific
12 p.m. - 2 p.m.
Jawahrok Scooter Complex
Spencer Museum Film Screening of Bonnie and Clyde 6 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Spencer Museum Auditorium
Part-Time Job Fair
9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Kansas Union Fourth Floor
Aug. 29
SATURDAY
Lawn Games and Librarians
2 p.m. - 4 p.m.
Watson Library
Aug. 24
ECM Welcome Back BBQ
5 p.m. - 7 p.m.
1204 Oread Avenue
Aug. 30
Night on the Hill Concert featuring The Hood Internet 9 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.
Outside Memorial Stadium
GREEK
More potential new members than ever attend recruitment
EMILY DONOVAN
edonovan@kansan.com
Members of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority break it down, rush style, in front of potential members.
A friendly tumult bustles outside Kappa Alpha Theta. Punctually, and seemingly in one precise movement, the assemblies separate. After her turn to say goodbye to the potential new member she had been paired with, each sophomore, junior and senior finds her assigned place on the house's porch, smiling with her arms professionally at her side.
In harmony, they begin: "If you want to be happy for the rest of your life / Be a little girl that wears a kite."
"I could sing it in my sleep," Laura Neenan, a junior from Leawood, said. "We sing it around the house without even realizing we're singing because it's so stuck in our heads."
Neenan isn't the only Theta who can never seem to forget that rhyme. Alumnae who visited their old house during rehearsals last week sang along too, still remembering melody after 40 years, though no longer in the traditional navy blue skirt and red heels.
GEORGE MULLINIX/KANSAN
life comes from tradition and rituals," Neenan said. "That's what keeps Greek life here so strong."
"Such a big part of being in Greek
PHA has uppled its publicity campaign in the past year, using Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to connect with incoming Jayhawks. Said also speculates that the increased number of women paying the $77 registration fee and considering making the financial commitment to join a sorority may reflect a strengthening economy.
Now, Greek life is expected to be not just stronger but bigger. A record-breaking 956 women registered for the Panhellenic Association's Fall Formal Recruitment.
"If I could pinpoint why more women registered for recruitment, I would say our emphasis on marketing and communicating with high school seniors," said Morgan Said, PHA director for public relations and a junior from Shawnee.
Whatever the cause, Said is enthusiastic about the opportunity to grow the Greek community to accommodate for the expected increase in new members. Last year, 69 percent of women who went
through fall formal recruitment joined a sorority.
Each sorority's new member quota changes every year based on how many women go through formal recruitment, generally ranging between 30 and 50 new women. Since most sorority members only live in the house sophomore and junior year, there's no shortage of beds that can be made available.
"If we have similar numbers next year, we'll just be even more prepared," Neenan said. "It's exciting."
While 20 percent of women at the University participated joined sororities last year, 14 percent of men joined fraternities. This year, the University of Kansas Interfraternity Council also said a record-breaking number of men register for formal recruitment: 126.
The 90 Theta girls have exactly 25 minutes to welcome, introduce, impress, shake hands and bid farewell. As the closing song ends, the flock of potential new members take out PHA notepads and ballpoint pens to jot down notes and reminders, trying to keep all 13 sororities straight. Their schedules are cramped. The existing sorority members don't have it any easier, but their long days and enthusiasm are well-practiced.
Men's formal recruitment, which took place over the weekend of June 28 through 30, is less intensive than women's formal recruitment. Most men who join fraternities do so through informal recruitment events throughout the school year.
"When you reflect on it weeks later, it's such a good time to get close to women in your chapter — spending time together, working so close
together — but the tradition makes it more meaningful," Neenan said.
Sorority formal recruitment concludes with Bid Day on Friday as potential new members are accepted into sororities based on a mutual selection. Every potential new member who sticks through recruitment is invited back to at least a few houses and ranks those houses by preference. Until then, nearly 1,000 freshman women may be seen cycling between sorority houses around campus in the 90- degree
weather.
"Make sure your name tags are flipped forward," a recruitment counselor calls to the next batch of 70 potential new members lining up in front of Theta. In a tie-dye t-shirt and tennis shoes, she's cheery and good-humored despite having been up since 5:45 a.m. "Huge smiles. Excited to be here."
Edited by Madison Schultz
Index
CLASSIFIEDS 9
CROSSWORD 8C
CRYPTOQUIPS 8C
OPINION 21A
SPORTS 1B
SUDOKU 8C
unless stated otherwise, © 2013 The University Daily Kansan
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