This fall, Alpha Gamma Delta (AGD) will join the Tufts Greek community as the sixth sorority on campus.

Informal recruitment for AGD will begin during the fall semester, which will result in a charter class. That class will then participate in formal recruitment in the spring, according to formerPanhellenic Council President Adiel Pollydore (LA ’15).

Erica Warfield, Panhellenic Council’s Director of Recruitment, said AGD’s recruitment process will be similar to that of Kappa Alpha Theta (KAӨ), a sorority whose chapter at Tufts was established two years ago.

“It’s great that we still have the founding sisters of [Kappa Alpha] Theta here on campus to…helpAGD settle down,” Warfield, a senior, said.

The process of bringing the two new sororities to Tufts began in 2012 when the university reviewed information about 23 sororities from the National Panhellenic Conference, according toPollydore. From there, an extension committee comprised of members of the Panhellenic Council, members of other sororities and administration members narrowed the sororities down to KAӨ and AGD.

According to Pollydore, the arrival of AGD is due in part to an increased demand among the student body for another sorority on campus.

“Tufts had three Panhellenic sororities on campus and there definitely seemed to be a need from women in the community to create more,” Pollydore said.

Warfield also noted the high demand for new sororities. She believes interest in Greek life at Tufts has grown in the past few years, as evidenced by the high number of women who participate in recruitment.

“Based on my own experience…I really think that in the past few years, Greek life has just expanded enormously,” she said. “Every year, it seems like we get more and more girls that are signing up for recruitment…and Tufts is working with us to accommodate these new people.”

Both Pollydore and Warfield emphasized the importance of bringing a unique sorority to campus.

“With a small Panhellenic community like we have at Tufts, it’s really important that we’re bringing…breadth and diversity,”Pollydore said. “It’s about finding organizations that stood out to us in the extension process. From my understanding, AGD was just bringing a lot of fresh ideas about how they could incorporate themselves into the Tufts community, and really being able to meet the niche within the community that might not have been met otherwise.”

Pollydore added that she hoped this change would allow a whole new group of women, who may never have joined a sorority or may not have found a good fit in the other four campus sororities, find a home in AGD.

In order to figure out how to make their sorority appealing to Tufts women, representatives from AGD attended a series of meetings and information sessions with the extension committee, Pollydore said.

“It’s awesome to be in that room and share the different ways in which our campus is unique, and how they can meet our needs,” she continued. “It’s not going to be like an outside organization coming in and asserting their presence…they want to create a new avenue for women who are already engaged and leaders on campus to continue to grow by being a part of a sorority.”

Pollydore expressed enthusiasm for this upcoming year, and the growth of the Panhellenic community at Tufts.

“I think that adding a new sorority to campus…will diversify the experience in Panhellenic sororities, and actually be a benefit to the Tufts community,” Pollydore said. “That’s my hope: that this can [have] a positive impact and be a really good thing that’s done.”

Correction: The original version of this article stated that AGD would be the fifth sorority on Tufts’ campus. AGD is the fifth Panhellenic sorority on campus, but the sixth sorority overall.