University Student Sees a Different Side to the Panhellenic Recruitment Experience

Annie Walker stands in front of Kappa Kappa Gamma September 20 at the University of Arkansas. Photo by Natalie Demaree.

Annie Walker is one of nearly 1,500 women who recently went through Panhellenic recruitment at the University of Arkansas; however, her experience was different because of her walking disability. 

The Fayetteville social work major has always known she wanted to rush, especially because of her very Greek-based family, she said. 

Walker was born with Spina Bifida, a neuromotor disease, which is the cause of her disability, she said. She uses walking sticks to help her balance when getting from place to place.

“Obviously, me, like having a disability, there were some things I had to do slightly differently,” Walker said. 

Walker had to make sure she was walking up and down as minimal stairs as possible when going from house to house. Parice Bowser, director of Greek Life, and the rest of the recruitment team made it super easy and welcoming, she said. 

“Actually on the first day when we were going to all the parties, she (Parice) went to every single one of them with me,” Walker said. 

Before going through the recruitment process, potential new members are asked to share with Greek Life any accommodations that might be needed, Bowser said in an email interview.

“It is our goal to ensure each potential new member have a great overall experience.” Bowser said. “This includes developing close relationships with the potential new member, their parents or care taker, as well as the CEA (Center for Educational Access) office.” 

Greek life works closely with the CEA throughout the year in order to help support current members as well as potential new members who may need accommodations, Bowser said. 

A big help in this process was when Greek Life rented out a van in order to drive Walker to all of her parties, she said. 

One of Walker’s initial concerns going through recruitment was the effect of her low GPA on her rush, she said. A valid concern since most sorority houses at the University base their first round of cuts based off of low GPAs. 

“I don’t meet the GPA of a lot of the houses here just because, basically in high school, I had a severe health situation every single year which caused my GPA to obviously kind of show that,” Walker said.

Greek Life encouraged her to send a letter to National Panhellenic to distribute to every President of each chapter explaining her health situation and the result of it in her GPA. This helped her feel more confident, but she still wanted to prove that she is better than her grades, Walker said.

“Most people don’t like the recruitment process,” Walker said. “I was having a literal party the whole- I loved it. I loved it.” 

On top of having a deeply rooted Greek family, Walker’s biggest reason to rush was because of the sense of belonging from being in a sorority, she said. 

This year, a record of over 90% of women going through recruitment received a bid, according to Panhellenic records.

On bid day, Walker accepted a bid from Kappa Kappa Gamma, one of 11 sorority chapters on campus, where she has an in-house sister and cousin. 

“These people are my sisters, and so I love it,” she said.