Formal Recruitment Formal recruitment is a four-round process that places over 1,000 women into 14 sororities. During each round, potential new members (PNMs) meet sorority women from each chapter and learn about each chapter’s values and character. With each round, PNMs visit fewer houses as they determine where they are best suited. After a mutual matching process, PNMs receive a bid card from one of two sororities the PNM visited in the preferential round. Throughout recruitment, PNMs and sorority women are not allowed to talk to each other outside rounds to ensure equal treatment. If you have any questions regarding recruitment, please contact our VP of Recruitment for PNM Affairs, Madeleine Stigall, at uxe5uz@virginia.edu . Helpful Links Recruitment Guidelines Contact Policy 2024-2025 GPA Letter Template 2026 PNM Booklet Formal Recruitment Sign Up Missed Party Letter Template

Chapters of the ISC Alpha Delta Pi Alpha Phi Alpha Chi Omega Delta Delta Delta Delta Gamma Delta Zeta Kappa Alpha Theta Kappa Delta Kappa Kappa Gamma Pi Beta Phi Sigma Kappa Sigma Sigma Sigma Chi Omega Zeta Tau Alpha

Informal Recruitment and COBs Continuous Open Bidding (COB) is an opportunity for chapters to recruit members at any time of the year, also known as informal recruitment. Informal recruitment activities can vary in style, but are generally shorter and less structured than the formal recruitment process. The majority of members will be added through the spring formal recruitment process. Note: Those who de-pledge after signing the membership recruitment acceptance binding agreement are not eligible to attend and may not accept another bid until the next formal recruitment period. If you have any questions about informal recruitment, please email the zvice President of Recruitment for PNM Affairs, Madeleine Stigall, at uxe5uz@virginia.edu .

About Us We are the largest group of women on Grounds with over 3,000 members in 14 Panhellenic sororities. The ISC at the University of Virginia strives to uphold the values of integrity, loyalty, compassion, and humility, upon which our organizations were founded. ISC involvement enhances the experience of all ISC women by providing resources and opportunities for scholarship, leadership, service, and social development in an atmosphere conducive to friendship and sisterhood. Recruitment One of the most recognized functions of ISC is overseeing the process of Recruitment each year. Potential new members are invited to consider sorority membership through two different intake processes: Informal and Formal Recruitment. Informal Recruitment occurs year-round through Continuous Open Bidding. Formal Recruitment takes place immediately following Winter Break. This second-semester intake process is more structured, extensive, and is our primary method of attaining new members. Non-Affiliation Although this organization has members who are University of Virginia students and may have University employees associated or engaged in its activities and affairs, the organization is not a part of or an agency of the University. It is a separate and independent organization that is responsible for and manages its own activities and affairs. The University does not direct, supervise or control the organization and is not responsible for the organization’s contracts, acts or omissions. Mission Statement The mission of the Inter-Sorority Council is the empowerment of a diverse group of women through the promotion of accessibility, academic excellence, inclusivity, sisterhood, wellness, and mutual respect and accountability. We strive to uphold the Inter-Sorority Council’s historic tenets of support and service by connecting with local and national causes to generate a positive impact on the University of Virginia, the Charlottesville community, and organizations on a national scale. Through the promotion of these values, the Inter-Sorority Council seeks to create a network of support and an environment of growth, as well as inspiring community action. Panhellenic Creed We, as Undergraduate Members of women’s fraternities, stand for good scholarship, for guarding of good health, for maintenance of fine standards, and for serving, to the best of our ability, our college community. Cooperation for furthering fraternity life, in harmony with its best possibilities, is the ideal that shall guide our fraternity activities. We, as Fraternity Women, stand for service through the development of character inspired by the close contact and deep friendship of individual fraternity and Panhellenic life. The opportunity for wide and wise human service, through mutual respect and helpfulness, is the tenet by which we strive to live.

About the Peer Accountability Board The Peer Accountability Board oversees all matters of dispute relating to the sorority community and its NPC chapters at the University of Virginia, including allegations of misconduct and violations of governing policies. It consists of one member selected by means of application and interview from each active sorority chapter. Bylaws (2025/2026) View ISC Constitution View ISC Standard Complaint Form View ISC Standards of Conduct View ISC Strategic Plan for Diversity and Inclusion Link National Panhellenic Unanimous Agreements View Racism and Discrimination Report Form View Reporting Recruitment Infractions View

Join Us Today Formal Recruitment Recruitment Informal Recruitment and COBs FAQs Regulations

Scholarships We hope to give all women interested in Greek life an opportunity to find their sisterhood and offer several scholarships to new and current members. If you have any questions regarding this, please reach out to our VP of Finance, Veronica Torres, at txc6tt@gmail.com .

Co-Sponsorship Requests Request a co-sponsorship from the ISC with this co-sponsorship request form . After completing, please email it to Veronica Torres, Vice President of Finance, at txc6tt@gmail.com . Applications will be discussed and approved by a majority vote of the Executive Board, which meets every other Sunday during the semester. Co-sponsorship requests should demonstrate the ways in which your program is directly targeted at the ISC community and/or how ISC members will benefit from it. Please include a breakdown of expenses that would be covered by the requested donation amount.

The University of Virginia's Inter-Sorority Council

Regulations and Guidelines Recruitment Guidelines Recruitment Regulations Informal Recruitment Regulations Contact Policy

FAQs Do I need letters of recommendation for Recruitment? I know people say they aren’t mandatory, but will they help me? By no means are letters of recommendation necessary. Every chapter takes recommendations into consideration differently. Most letters of recommendation can be submitted online through the local chapters' websites or their national headquarters' websites. If you have recommendations, you can find the instructions to submit them for each chapter on their websites, which are listed under the "About Us" tab. Is it possible to play a varsity sport and be in a sorority at the same time? It’s definitely possible! Plenty of varsity athletes are sorority women. Sorority membership is what you make of it. You can as involved as you would like to be by taking on leadership positions and participating in chapter events, or just attend weekly meetings and activities. In terms of recruitment, sororities are very understanding when games or practices conflict with formal recruitment rounds. You will handle recruitment conflicts closer to the start of formal recruitment with your recruitment counselor. I started to fill out the registration form and it asked for my current GPA/Hours completed. What do I put there exactly since I’m a first-year? You can put 0 and 0.0 for your GPA. That is mostly there for upperclassmen. The ISC conducts grade checks during winter break, so we will manually add in everyone’s GPA. Keep in mind the ISC strongly recommends at least a 2.0 to participate in recruitment. Is it possible for students in the UVA School of Continuing and Professional Studies to join a sorority even if they don’t live in Charlottesville? Unfortunately, students in the SCPS are not permitted to join a sorority or participate in recruitment. According to national standards, students must be regularly matriculated in order to be eligible to pledge a sorority or fraternity. For those of us attending UVA on financial aid, is it unrealistic to participate in Recruitment when we do not have the financial resources to be in a sorority? Are there ways to alleviate financial hardships and participate? There are definitely ways, available from both the ISC and from the individual chapters. Sorority dues are a significant financial responsibility. The average dues for the first semester are around $1,200 but will drop by several hundred dollars (and will remain consistent) for your remaining three years. Visit the Financial Transparency Page for more details about a specific chapter's dues. Each chapter offers different scholarships. You will be given information from each chapter about these opportunities during recruitment. For information about ISC scholarships, please contact our VP of Finance, Emma Hardwich, at uvaiscvpf@gmail.com . When filling out the recruitment enrollment form, should the activities we list be only from this year (ie first semester for first years), or can we include things from high school? Most people just put activities that you are involved in at UVA. You also may include activities from high school, too. Please note somewhere in the box which ones are high school activities. Does the ISC plan on making any changes to recruitment so pledge classes can accommodate the greater amounts of women participating in recruitment? Every woman who registers for Formal Recruitment is eligible to receive a bid, no matter how many women register for recruitment. The maximum number of women that chapters are allowed to invite back for each round depends on the number of women participating in recruitment and is adjusted after every round. Similarly, the number of women that chapters extend bids to depends on the number of women participating in recruitment through the end of the Preferences round. Chapter pledge class sizes are based on the number of women receiving and accepting bids, not on any arbitrary number set by the ISC. As more women register for and participate in Formal Recruitment, we expect all chapters to see increasingly larger pledge classes. Is it tough rushing for a second time? No. Going through recruitment for a second time does not make it a more difficult process. If anything, you may find it easier now that you know how recruitment works and know more of the sisters in our chapters. It is always a relief to see a familiar face during a recruitment party!

The Development of Sororities and the Inter-Sorority Council The history of sororities is closely associated with efforts to grant educational opportunities to women at the University of Virginia. When UVA was first founded in 1819 under the direction of Thomas Jefferson, he envisioned a southern institution dedicated to educating the sons of the Southern aristocracy, training them to be the future leaders of the new nation. In keeping with this vision, the University of Virginia remained an all-male, all-white institution for much of its history. Women were permitted to attend summer teaching institutes in the 1890s and to enroll in graduate programs beginning in 1920. With this initial inclusion of women on Grounds, female fraternal organizations, commonly referred to as sororities, began to crop up to match the male fraternities that existed on Grounds since the mid-1800s. Chi Omega was the first sorority to come to Grounds in 1927, followed by Kappa Delta in 1932. Amid rising public pressure and an impending lawsuit, the College of Arts and Sciences admitted women to its undergraduate program, effectively making the University co-educational in 1970. The academic and extracurricular environment immediately changed. In the following years, several women’s fraternities were chartered at the University. By the end of the 1970s, eleven chapters existed at UVA, with several more colonizing in the early 1980s. These female organizations provided networks of support and sisterhood for these early pioneering women. In keeping with the tradition of “student self-governance” that all Virginia students esteem so highly, these sorority women established the Inter-Sorority Council in 1975 to serve as the governing body of the sororities on Grounds. The Inter-Sorority Council (ISC) functioned similarly to the Inter-Fraternity Council (IFC), charged with overseeing numerous sororities. These original women chose the name Inter-Sorority Council to demonstrate equality to their male fraternal counterparts, the University community, and the greater Charlottesville community. The ISC elected its own leaders, developed its own policies, procedures, and programs, and sought to further the unifying mission of each sorority while providing networks of academic and social support for the women of UVA. The ISC became completely self-sufficient and student-run like many organizations around Grounds. The Present Inter-Sorority Council In December 2005, the chapter delegates of each of the active ISC chapters voted to formally affiliate with the national governing body of sororities, the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC). However, given the rich tradition associated with the name “Inter-Sorority Council” and the struggle women faced to even attend UVA, the chapter delegates opted to continue to refer to the collegiate governing board as the Inter-Sorority Council. Members of the University administration, including those within the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life, and area NPC delegates supported the ISC in this decision because of the culture and heritage associated with the name. However, the ISC has taken great steps to revise its procedures and policies to ensure compliance with NPC policies and rules. Members of the ISC Executive Board, including the President, Vice President of Recruitment, and Vice President of Judiciary, annually attend the Southeastern Panhellenic Conference (SEPC), the largest annual meeting of collegiate NPC governing boards in the United States including representatives from Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, and others. Today, the Inter-Sorority Council governs 15 NPC chapters and over 3,000 women, making it the largest organization of women on Grounds. Sorority women are extremely active within the UVA community and hold leadership positions in many of UVA’s most visible organizations. Sorority women have been chairs of both the University Judiciary Committee and Honor Committee, President of Class Councils and Trustees, representatives on Student and School Councils, and active members in the University Guide Service, as well as numerous positions in other organizations. ISC women are also involved in athletic organizations, including varsity, club, and intramural sports. The women of the ISC excel academically. The Greek female GPA is consistently higher than the non-Greek female GPA at UVA. The ISC strives to uphold the five pillars of Sisterhood, Service, Scholarship, Support, and Student Leadership. The ISC’s mission is to support and promote the well-being of the 14 chapters of the ISC in their interactions with each other, as well as within the Greek, University, and Charlottesville communities. The tradition of female Greek involvement and dedication is strong, as the ISC continues its pursuit in honor of UVA's past pioneering women. History