Recruitment began Sept. 12 and ended Sept. 18. Two hundred thirty bids were given out: 120 by the fraternities, and 110 by the sororities.

That’s about one fourth of the freshman class.

“People don’t know a lot about the Greek system,” said Nick Sauer of Theta Chi. “Greeks need to promote themselves more.”

Neil Johnson of Lambda Chi Alpha said Greek life is in a transition period. With many rules about alcohol enacted in the past three years, parties on campus have disappeared.

Max Goldberg, Sigma Chi Recruitment Chair, said that men who were looking for parties were turned off when they discovered that DU Greeks don’t have parties in their houses, but that parties are the wrong reason to join anyway.

Perceptions and stereotypes of Greek life contribute to the lackluster turnout at recruitment. Mike McKenzie, the graduate assistant of Greek Life, said that people who come expecting an “Animal House” atmosphere find out that fraternity life isn’t really like that, become disappointed, and don’t join in recruitment.

McKenzie said he believes that Greeks should work on projecting a balanced image of scholarship, friendship, philanthropy and social activities.

Stereotypes affected the women as well.

“‘Sorority Life’ on MTV portrayed Greek women in a negative way,” said Katie Vilders, recruitment chair of Delta Zeta. “MTV tends to dramatize things, and I think the stereotypes they displayed were not representative of Greeks,” she said.

Justin Finkle of Chi Phi said, “It’s hard to bring a new reputation to Greek life if there’s a low turnout for recruitment. We need the new members to reshape what people think about us.”

So what does the future of Greek life hold?

“Membership will drop for a little while, but rise again as people realize what we are all about now,” said Johnson. “The fraternities are changing slowly, and I think people really see that.”

There are eight fraternities on campus, two on Old Row on East Evans Avenue, and several houses on the east side of University Boulevard. Sorority houses are located on South Josephine Street.