Bid day comes to an end leaving girls united with their sisters.
The Women’s Panhellenic Association wrapped up its nearly month-long formal recruitment process Sunday with the highest number of bids on record.
The nine sororities in the association distributed a total of 500 bids and ultimately welcomed 496 new members into greek life, said Kristen Kardas, assistant director for greek life at Ohio University. Only four women declined bids.
When the WPA’s registration ended two weeks ago, 825 women had signed up, according to a previous Post article. However, 59 of the potential new members withdrew themselves or were not matched with any of the sororities during the process.
Another 266 women did not receive a bid, withdrew themselves from the process or did not show up to participate, Kardas said. That left 500 women to receive bids.
Bid Day activity commenced at 7:30 a.m. Sunday when greek advisors, chapter recruitment chairs and chapter presidents filled out the bids they chose to extend to their selected candidates. Each bid card contained the crest of the chapter such as a rose insignia for Alpha Omicron Pi, for example.
The bid cards were then transferred to the OU’s Office of Greek Life, put in envelopes and distributed to the 54 Rho Gammas. Rho Gammas are disaffiliated sorority members who provide unbiased advice and counseling to women going through the recruitment process. Each Rho Gamma oversees a number of recruits.
“At 11:55 a.m., the Rho Gammas handed out the bids (to the potential new members),” Kardas said. “At noon, we set off the siren of our megaphone which signaled that they could open up their bids. There was hugging and yelling and a lot of excitement.”
In past years, the bid day ceremony — where new members unite with their sisters for the first time — was held at McCracken Field. This year, the event was hosted at the Wilhelm Amphitheater behind Scripps Hall.
The new members were introduced to their new chapter and rushed across the cement surface and onto the grass where each of the nine sororities convened in groups, holding up large signs of their respective greek letters. Once all the members were joined in sisterhood, the Rho Gammas revealed their own sororities — which up to that point had remained secret — concluding the ceremony.
“Amazing is the perfect word to describe my Bid Day experience,” said Kalee Nielsen, a freshman studying pre-exercise physiology and a new member to Alpha Gamma Delta. “In a matter of seconds, I transformed from a lonely freshman to a young woman with a hundred new sisters, a hundred potential best friends, bridesmaids and a hundred new relationships that will surely last a lifetime”
“Typically, chapters tend to go back to their houses where there is a celebration. Some hire (disk jockeys) and some hire photographers and each of them usually give their new members a shirt they designed,” Kardas said.
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