About 760 men participated in Interfraternity Council recruitment week which started Sunday night.

The number of men participating probably increased because the freshman class was larger this year, but also because of the increased focus on recruitment by IFC, Sokatch said.

Nationally, fraternity recruitment numbers have decreased, but OU has broken that trend, he said.

"Hopefully we can continue that trend and get guys involved," he said.

There were several changes to fraternity recruitment this year.

One major change was the implementation of the "one-way house cut," Sokatch said.

In the past, possible recruits would wait around until bid day hoping to get into a big house and then they'd get cut. This option now allows houses to tell men starting Tuesday that they will not get chosen.

"So far we've seen good results from it," Sokatch said. It gives the smaller houses a chance to recruit men who weren't originally considering them.

Women's recruitment has had the option for a long time, as well as allowing the potential recruits to cut houses, Sokatch said.

Women's sorority recruitment numbers were pretty consistent with previous years, said Beth Stathos, associate director of Student Life and Panhellenic Association advisor.

About 43 percent of incoming freshmen women went through recruitment, she said. About 767 women joined a sorority during formal bid day.

The Panhellenic Association also had a new chapter this year.

Alpha Phi had an "extraordinary" first fall recruitment since returning to campus last spring, Stathos said. They had left in 1998 because of dwindling membership.

Alpha Phi surpassed quota and added 75 women during recruitment. Stathos said she didn't know of any other chapter that had filled quota in its first recruitment.

This is Stathos' last week as Panhellenic advisor. She is leaving to be general counsel in Memphis, Tenn., with her sorority, Chi Omega.