[BlueBayou]

Bid Day

The way it worked at my school is the parties were over by 3:30pm. You were told to go back to your room and wait for a call from Panhellenic. You did not want that call. The call meant that you were a quota victim.

And in the pre-computer days and no existence of "maximizing your options" there was such a thing as a "quota victim." Even if you went to both parties - you could not be high enough on both sororities bid lists.

The calls were suppose to come by 6pm I believe. But there were a record number of girls going through rush, and there was that struggling sorority that was impacting the number of people opting to "suicide" one particular sorority. So there were more quota victims that you would ever want to see. The calls took longer to make because of the volume and I suspect there were probably some type of "snap" bids being offered. But that was not something that was ever discussed or confirmed.

If you didn't get a call - you waited for a group of girls to show up to your door with your bid card, door tag, t-shirt and other swag.

It was past the time that all calls were supposed to be made. Probably almost an hour past the time. My next door neighbor that had suicided Pine's phone rang. She was a quota victim. In pre-cell phone days - you had roommates running between the rooms updating us.

I would say within 2 minutes - we heard the Acacia girls on wing below us chanting and cheering. My friend had to be one of the absolute last calls made.

So at this point - even though Pine was my top choice - I was hoping beyond hope that Cedar would show up at my door. I would have been happy there too. And frankly, I figured Pine wasn't going to show up anyway - if my friend didn't get in.

Then came the knock. A sea of Mickey Mouse themed swag and a bid card from....






Pine


(on a side note - my parents called right as the knock at the door came. Because things were running so late - they figured my roommate forgot to call and update them. It was about two hours past the time we expected to be picked up. It was funny to hear my non-greek roommate try to give a play-by-play describing the greek letters so my parents would know what sorority it was)

I had serious mixed emotions. I was just offered a bid to the sorority I truly believed was the best one on campus. But I was very torn because I felt these young women had callously tossed my friend aside and hurt her feelings. She was so much more into joining a sorority than I was. I was worried that I just got caught up the process.

I signed my big card and was whisked away to a bid party at a Mexican restaurant. It was noisy and everyone seemed so happy. But if you look at the picture of the whole chapter - I am on the bottom left hand side of the front row looking shell shocked while everyone else is smiling big as can be.

I don't remember much about the party - but the actives were extremely happy with the pledge class. Apparently - almost everyone pledged was off the top bid list. They only went a couple people down on their second bid list (and once on the other side of things - I learned our sorority did not invite as many people to pref as they could, because they were more often a rushee's number 1 choice vs number 2). But not understanding the process, all the talk of the "wonderful" pledge class made me sadder for my friend. Why did they consider me "better" than her.