Behind a nervous and quivering smile, Chanda said she had

But for Chanda, happiness would be opening that white envelope on Bid Day and seeing the Greek letters ZTA.

"Part of the reason I came to Brenau is because I didn’t have many close girlfriends in high school," she said. "So, I really wanted to join the sorority and have closer friends. Ones that will actually last and not just be temporary ... I think it will really be worth it."

In the meantime, recruitment had begun, and if her hopes for ZTA didn’t pan out, Chanda must be open to the other sororities on campus.

"I’m kind of just going with it," she said. "I’m hoping to learn about all of them and being happy no matter where I end up. I’m sure they’re all great, I just don’t know much about any of them."

No frills

As Chanda and the other girls enter formal recruitment, they also are preparing to enter a new Greek life. But Brenau recruitment, along with Greek life, might not resemble what others have gone through at larger universities.

Debbie Thompson, the director of the Center for Greek Life and Campus Traditions at Brenau, said Brenau practices a "no frills" recruitment at the school.

"The purpose for recruitment is conversation and interaction and all that other takes away," she said. "We don’t want people picking a sorority based on flower arrangements, how the girls are dressed, what bling they have."

In a letter from the university to sorority hopefuls, Brenau said "Greek organizations (are) one way to become actively involved in the campus community. A Greek organization or sorority is a group of individuals of similar interests bonded together by common goals and aspirations."

These values are what attracted sophomores Danielle Nelson and Monique Purnell to the recruitment process.

"Last year I didn’t really think I needed more friends but this year I thought, ‘Yeah, I do,’" Nelson said. "Just somewhere that I can fit in, like a family."

Purnell wasn’t able to finish recruitment her freshman year because of a death in the family, so this year she decided to go another round and take her chances.

Even though the two friends clearly entered recruitment on their own, they were not giddy with excitement on the first day of recruitment — rather, they were nervous. You could see it in their eyes — they weren’t sure at all about their outfits, what to expect or how to react.

Part of tradition

But being part of a sorority at Brenau has been a mainstay at the school for nearly 100 years.

"Most of our chapters are planning their 100th anniversary in the next five years," she said. "Two of them will be in 2010 and that’s amazing. Most of them are original members ... most of ours are single letters, one of the first 26 within their fraternity."

There are six National Panhellenic Council sororities at Brenau: Alpha Chi Omega, Alpha Delta Pi, Alpha Gamma Delta, Delta Delta Delta and Zeta Tau Alpha.

"Campus used to be 90 percent Greek," said Thompson, who has been at Brenau for 18 years. "When I first started working here it was probably about 80 percent then. But at one time everybody was a residential student; you didn’t have the nontraditional students and so it was a different demographic. Interest in Greek life has not decreased ... at one time every chapter had 50 members, when most everyone on campus was Greek.

"Now our house total is 32; nobody can have more than others."

Alpha Kappa Alpha and Delta Sigma Theta are members of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, which governs the historically African-American, international Greek lettered fraternities and sororities.

Rush — yes they still use this term — happens in the spring at Brenau. Students may rush as a freshman after their first semester is completed.

Charmaine Gilmore, president of Alpha Kappa Alpha at Brenau, said the process for the traditionally African-American sororities is much more direct.

"You choose whether you want to go DST (Delta Sigma Theta) or you go to AKA and then you proceed there, you don’t go around to all the other houses."

The entire process with Alpha Kappa Alpha is quite secretive and they don’t want their pledges to visit other sororities. The commitment needs to be made to them upfront.

"It’s a whole process that we can’t even talk about," Gilmore said. "You have to have the right grade requirements, community service ... it’s just the fact of knowing what you want to do, not having a week to decide."

The official recruitment for the other six sororities at Brenau started Sept. 17 and lasted four days. Sorority hopefuls go to six houses the first day, four the next, then three and two on the final day.

In the meantime, there are daily activities to get to know more about each house.

The first night of recruitment, called Open House, divided the potential new members into six different groups.

"They visit each house for 20 minutes," Thompson said. "They do a bell at 19 minutes and they have to be out the door at the 20th minute and they walk to the next house. So they do all six houses that night.

"Then the sororities rank who they want to invite the next night, the PNMs (potential new members) rank the sororities — we don’t call it cutting anymore, all the verbage has changed."

On Philanthropy Night, each girl is invited back to four houses for 25 minutes each.

"Each night we just got to talk to them and learn more about them," Chanda said. "The first night was really just about talking for about 10 minutes ... the second night was philanthropy night, so we got to learn more about their philanthropies and see how involved they were. The Sisterhood event was really emotional. We got to hear their personal stories and why they love their sorority and it was really heartfelt."

Each night after the events are through, there is a ranking process that matches the sorority choices with the potential new member’s ranking. Today, universities use an online service for the process that formerly was meticulously done by hand into the early morning hours.

"You could be invited back to your sixth choice and you have to go back," Thompson said. "We try to put a positive spin on that, too — you could have a bad impression of them that first night; give them another chance."

Lots of planning

But what the sorority hopefuls see during each event is just a small part of what sorority sisters have done behind the scenes.

"We’ve been practicing since the spring," said Anna Sowell, the Greek Council co-president at Brenau. "A lot of sororities did closed recruitment in the spring, some had beach recruitment trips over the summer ... once everybody moved back it hit pretty hard with practice every night while trying to meet the girls."

Sowell said each night — once the sisters got back to Brenau in the fall — was spent preparing.

This is taken very seriously by Sowell and the other sisters. She said plainly that part of preparing for recruitment is actu

ually learning about each girl personally.

Each sorority member has to remember the names, hometown, which high school they attended and many other traits about each sorority hopeful.

"Not only are we out practicing every night and getting things going, we are out meeting the girls," she said. "Each house prepares differently; some houses have the pictures up, some houses do books, some houses do slide shows, so it’s whatever fits the style of the house. Some may not choose to do that; it depends on what fits the house best and their style of recruiting."

Thompson sees girls like Sowell deep in preparation mode and she knows they are stressed — but she thinks it’s fun to watch.

"They do the planning, they design the T-shirts," she said. "To watch it come together and to watch them realize what they have done, of course it is always fun to watch the new members join their chapters."

An important part of the process also involves Rho Gammas, who are sorority members who help lessen the stress of their sisters.

During the days before recruitment the 16 Rho Gammas — or recruitment guides — help the potential new members in every part of the recruitment process. They keep the girls calm, help with what to wear, give them a hug if they need it or snap the sorority hopefuls back to reality.

"As a Rho Gam, the girls ask about this a lot, ‘What they should wear?’" said Elaine Childs, the Panhellenic president at Brenau. "They just want reassurance. Our job is to meet everyone."

During recruitment, the Rho Gammas are unaffiliated with their own sororities and help the potential new members with any problems or concerns.

The Rho Gamma position has very strict rules, according to Thompson.

"They don’t wear their letters, they are not supposed to say who they are with, what sorority they are in," she said. "They are supposed to be nonbiased counselors to help the potential new members decide."

So as the young women went from house to house during formal recruitment, nerves were raw. Tissues were essential accessories, discreetly kept in handbags.

And when decision time came for Chanda that first night, she was torn about which sororities to rank.

After the first day of recruitment her eyes had been opened to the six Brenau sororities and their distinct personalities.

She knew in her heart which ones she should rank — but was she heading in the right direction?

It would just take a few more heart-pounding days and events to finish out the recruitment process and come to a final decision. One that could change her life at Brenau as she knew it.