New sorority members run from Hughes-Trigg to their new houses on Bid Day.
Recruitment Week drew to a close on Sunday with hundreds of girls running from Hughes-Trigg Student Center to their sorority house of choice. “The so called ‘pig run’ occurs right after girls receive their bids,” said August Knape, business management sophomore. “When they get to their respective houses, initiated members are waiting outside to welcome the new members.”
Freshman Clarke Mickum said that historically, bid run has been viewed in a negative light, but this year seemed to be calmer. “I know a few people who got squirted with water guns, but all I got were high-fives. The boys being there was actually kind of comforting,” she said.
But recruitment week was not all fun. Many potential new members (PNM’s) and existing members alike found themselves in a constant state of stress. Some felt that sorority recruitment was much more stressful than fraternity recruitment, mostly because of the different set up of each.
“Not only do the guys have much less structure and fewer strict rules in their process, but girls take rush more personally. While the boys are out with their friends relaxing and having fun, we are lining up in alphabetical order wondering if the girls who smile at you non-stop are really just clenching their teeth waiting for you get lost,” Mickum said.
Rachel Roberts, president of the Panhellenic Council at SMU, said that for all sororities the process of recruitment includes two days of open house, a philanthropy day, a skit day and ends with a preference day. Fraternities, on the other hand, have more choice on what activities to plan for their PNM’s.
“We went to Top Golf, Winstar Casino and paintball, all of which were a blast for recruits and all the active members,” said Sami Hage, vice president of recruitment for the Beta Theta Pi fraternity.
Because of the intense schedule and potential stress of sorority recruitment, PNM’s of the sororities are provided with some help: the Rho-Gammas.
“Rho-Gammas are sorority women who have disaffiliated with their chapter for a semester to aid PNM’s in the process of sorority recruitment,” Knape said.
These women provide PNM’s with everything from information about Recruitment Week to encouragement when PNM’s are having a hard time, said Kellie Spano, CCPA and philosophy sophomore.
This year, the Interfraternity Council announced a new process for recruitment week that required PNM’s to receive stamps at each fraternity house as opposed to requiring them to go to each house every day.
“I feel like this defeats the purpose of the whole rush process and even hurts the freshmen’s chances of getting bids from fraternities. Many of them got all of their stamps out of the way on day one, and then would just sleep through the rush rounds during some of the other days,” said Brett Davis, sophomore business major.
Business and CCTV sophomore Jack Benage took a more relaxed stance on the issue.
“Any changes aren’t too noteworthy, usually things seem to work themselves out,” Benage said.
Even though Recruitment Week brought a lot of stress and interesting changes, most agree that it was a big success.
Mickum said: “We really are starting something new altogether, no matter how the dynamic ends up playing out. I’m really excited about everything that’s coming up.”
-Jessica Huseman, Online Editor
