Fraternities on campus might have an extra day to impress potential members during recruitment. On Thursday, the Interfraternity Council plans to vote on the addition of an extra day to the formal recruitment process, an IFC member said.

Grant Gossett, IFC vice president of recruitment, said IFC will add the extra day after the first day of recruitment when potential members visit all 10 chapters.

Gossett, a senior history major, said that this year IFC added an early signing option, which fraternities found very effective.

Last year, the formal recruitment process began with an hour-long orientation followed by two days of potential members visiting the chapter houses and a bid day, Gossett said. The early signing option was available at the end of the first day.

“They have an opportunity to sign early without having to wait until bid day,” Gossett said.

Fraternities use the early signing option to measure interest in the different chapters and to give them an idea about how to better present themselves, IFC officials said. Potential members who opt for early signing are not committing themselves to a fraternity but indicating where their interest lies.

After adding the early signing option this fall, IFC members felt potential members needed an extra day to decide, Gossett said.

IFC President Evan Berlin said the two-day process was not enough time for all potential members to generate a decision on which fraternity they were interested.

This year a record number of potential members received bids but did not accept them, said Berlin, a senior strategic communications major.

“We had about 420 guys go through formal recruitment in the fall,” Berlin said. “About 60 guys received bids but did not accept bids.”

The reason for the high number of men not accepting bids was because there was not enough time for potential members to go to fraternities that were interested in meeting them, Berlin said. He said that by adding another day, potential members can narrow down which fraternities they are interested in more easily.

“They didn’t accept them because it wasn’t the organization they thought they were going to receive an actual bid from,” Berlin said.

Gossett said this extra day should give students an opportunity to visit all the chapters in a less stressful and less formal environment.

“It’s an opportunity for them to have more experience and more exposure to as many of the houses as possible, so we don’t have as much of a turn-around rate,” Gossett said.

Adding the extra day is more beneficial for the potential members than it is for the chapters, Gossett said. The new day is for potential members who are not able to participate in informal recruitment and need more time to decide, he said.

“It’s for students that find themselves conflicted,” Gossett said, “(when) they really have their hearts set on one chapter, but the chapter has unfortunately already filled up their bid roster.”

The new day also gives the chapters an opportunity to become more competitive, Gossett said.

“It gives them an extra day to work with students that don’t take advantage of the early signing process,” he said.

The third day will be similar to the last day of rush last year when potential members visited the chapters that showed interest in them, Gossett said.

The addition of the new day, if approved Thursday, will go into effect in the fall of 2010.