Bid or Bust

New recruits began spreading the good news last Sunday when they peeled off their shirts at the Rock, exposing their chosen sororities.

In what is known as the “revealing tradition,” the 2002 sorority pledge classes showed the world exactly where their loyalties lie after the week of recruitment events that ended on Bid Day last Sunday.

The pledges wore big T-shirts, under which were their Bid Day shirts displaying their chosen sororities. The individual sororities gave their new pledges their shirts beforehand and spent the rest of the day getting to know their new sisters.

“Sorority recruitment is a mutual selection process with women choosing sororities and sororities choosing women,” said Kandyce Fernandez, Vice President of Recruitment for Panhellenic.

During recruitment week, recruits were required to meet twice with each of six sororities-Delta Delta Delta, Delta Gamma, Delta Phi Epsilon, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Sigma Delta Tau and Delta Tau Alpha-and get acquainted with all aspects of sorority life through informal conversation and skits.

Unlike fraternity recruitment, sororities have a Panhellenic Association formal recruitment process with four rounds of organized activities before Bid Day.

“It was a very intense experience,” freshman Jessica Rosen said. “I didn’t expect it to be so strict, but it ended up being a lot of fun.”

“We’re sisters; it’s like a family,” Lynds Best of Kappa Kappa Gamma said.

According to organizers, this year surpassed the record set in 1936 for the number of women who were involved in recruitment activities. The quota, the total number of recruits divided by the number of sororities, for each sorority was 51, organizers said.

“It was very stressful for me to pick the right sorority,” said freshman Cathleen Barkett, who was not allowed to tell the Hurricane which sorority she had chosen before Bid Day. “They’re all really good girls and it was hard to pick which sorority I felt most comfortable with.”

“I didn’t want to be a part of sorority life originally, but once I saw how involved they are, I knew I wanted to be a part of that,” said Emma Carroll, Tri Delta sister.

Organizers said that the event went smoothly and that everyone who participated enjoyed the experience.

“I think that the girls who participated in the activities and were really interested in the whole process are definitely excited about becoming a part of us,” said Brooke Norwood, a Kappa Kappa Gamma sister.

“I’m happy that all our new sisters found a place in one of our sororities,” Fernandez said. “This is the beginning of a whole new experience for them.”