U. of Florida: Change in Bid Day "Tradition"

[exlurker]

They're modifying a sorority Bid Day "tradition." Apparently the change will, among other things, give more privacy to women who are disappointed.
See article in the Alligator for July 6 '06:

http://www.alligator.org/pt2/060706bids.php

(I put "tradition" in quotes because the paper says the practice they're modifying has been going on since 2002.)

[adpiucf]

Women participating in recruitment this August will receive their bid cards inside classrooms in Norman Hall. Upon receipt of their bids, only those who want to leave the classroom will be escorted to Norman Field.
....

After receiving their bids, disappointed girls can remain inside Norman Hall, where Pi Chis and a team of five UF counselors will be on hand to provide guidance.

This is what we did-- everyone got their bids in classrooms, met in a gymnasium for some speeches, etc., and then were dismissed by sorority to run home with their reaffiliated recruitment counselors.

I understand the excitement of 100s of women standing in UF's Norman Field with their bids held high over their heads until given the go-ahead to open them.... But I hope not too many PNMs will be disappointed that this tradition is changing... then again, they've really only been doing it that way for the last 3 years...

ETA: I think it is a good idea to have counselors on-hand. It can be a very emotional day for some women and the pressure builds up throughout the week-- hopefully they will be receptive. I think more schools should consider having a counselor around on Bid Day for the girls who don't get their #1 choice. The recruitment counselors really can only console so much-- some girls may need to talk to a professional. I know for those who haven't experienced it, it sounds trite, but for some of these women, not getting their 1st choice bid (at age 17-20) is often the most devastating thing to have happened to them and they have a hard time coping.

[33girl]

Thank heaven. This business of opening your bid card in front of everyone in the world sounds absolutely barbaric to me. Granted, I'm sure there were some people who didn't like the way we used to do it (the sorority knocked on your dorm door - you didn't know who it was till you opened it) and were disappointed, but at least then you only had to cry in front of 3-5 sorority members, not the whole Greek community.

Even the classrooms sound like too much to me. Can't they be delivered somewhere where the girls can open them completely in private?

[adpiucf]

I think at smaller schools, they could accomodate this, but the logistics involved with individually delivering 700-1000+ bids/having private rooms to open/scheduling girls to come into a set of rooms one at a time at a school like UF makes it next to impossible.

Girls who haven't been matched do receive a phone call ahead of time. At my school, this was often accompanied with snap bid offers that they could accept and attend Bid Day. Regardless, those phone calls are never easy. A recruitment counselor can only do so much through the week to counsel, comfort and console-- and encourage the girls to keep an open mind and remember to take seriously the signing of their preference card and those selections-- any of the sororities they list on their preference cards could be the sorority that greets them on Bid Day.

[33girl]

But if there are however many Rho Chis, couldn't they each take a dorm and put the bids in their mailboxes? Or have the sorority members each take a bunch and put them in?

I know it's hard logistically, but I just can't imagine how hideous it must be to have to open your bid and be disappointed in front of a bunch of people you don't know - most of whom are experiencing emotions the complete opposite of yours.

[Greekopedia]

yah i saw this in our paper today.

It was amazing to see girls cry when they dont get into the organization they want.

[KSUViolet06]

This is a good idea.

I know my school tries hard to give PNMs privacy when they receive their bids. They go into the Campus Life office individually and open their bid envelopes. If they accept, they go down and get ready for Bid Night festivities. If they decline, they can do so in the privacy of the office. So no one gets a chance to see the girls who are unhappy with their choices except the PXs and Greek Life Advisor.

[kdonline]

This is the right thing to do. When I was at UF in the 1980s, we received our bids in our (then called) Rho Chi groups, separated in classrooms. There was no big show for the world to watch us celebrate or cry.

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Granted, I'm sure there were some people who didn't like the way we used to do it (the sorority knocked on your dorm door - you didn't know who it was till you opened it) and were disappointed, but at least then you only had to cry in front of 3-5 sorority members, not the whole Greek community.

We did it that way too, except you knew who was coming because they were singing at the top of their lungs. I suppose if you didn't want that group, you didn't have to answer your door. I have to admit that's one of my best memories of college.. when I heard those Alpha Gams singing our 14 pearls song and they were clearly stopped in front of MY door

That said, I was from a small greek school and with only 4 sororities and having gone through Winter Rush (we had two formal rush periods back then), it was small. It's hard to imagine one of those huge recruitments for me.

[FSUZeta]

most(if not all) panhellenics would make every effort to contact a pnm so that they are spared the embarrasment of showing up to find they have rec'd no invitations or did not receive a bid(although, if a pnm makes it to pref round it is rare that she would not receive a bid),

i am glad that uf panhellenic is changing the way the bids are distributed. it sounds like a good thing.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by ucfpnm

Oh my God. How devastating. I'm so glad the Rho Gammas at UCF call girls before hand if they haven't recieved a bid. So what would the girls be holding if they didn't get a bid? A blank piece of paper inside a bid envelope? (Or, "We're sorry. Please play again.") OH MY GOD.

They DO call the girls who haven't received bids. They aren't there. What's being referred to is the girls who are disappointed with the bid that they DO get.

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by ucfpnm

Oh my God. How devastating. I'm so glad the Rho Gammas at UCF call girls before hand if they haven't recieved a bid. So what would the girls be holding if they didn't get a bid? A blank piece of paper inside a bid envelope? (Or, "We're sorry. Please play again.") OH MY GOD.

They don't always just cry because they didn't receive a bid at all...there was a girl at my school who cried and was disappointed because she didn't get her top choice. I know that her PX probably should have told her that if she was going to be THAT disappointed that she would cry to suicide, but they REALLY encouraged not doing that (unless you were a legacy, then they didn't say anything).

[Sister Havana]

I don't know how they do it now but when I rushed at IU, your rush counselor would knock on your dorm door and deliver the envelope, same as she did when she was handing out invite lists. Then buses would stop at the dorms and pick the new pledges up and drop them off at their new homes.

[knitsnpurls]

I definitely agree that girls should have privacy, so I think the change in policy is good. As for handing out individual bids door to door though, as someone said, at larger schools, the logistics of that could get very complicated (ie: a campus without distinct freshman dorms, dorms that are locked, people not being home or even new members who don't live on campus. Now I'm interested on how it's done at my school hmmm...

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by ucfpnm

Oh...that's different, I guess. I wonder what the sisters who DID want her thought of that.

Let's put it this way, I don't remember seeing her at the first all PHC new member event.