The front yards of Emory University’s sorority lodges buzzed with energy on the morning of Jan. 18. Outside the entrances of the brick townhomes, members held up hair dryers to freshly painted stylized signs and ran in and out of the front doors with questions and excited greetings. Members of Gamma Phi Beta donned matching dark red sweatshirts, while Sigma Delta Tau members sported matching pink pajama sets. Pi Beta Phi members also had paper cutouts of berries strung around their necks, representing their newest class of best picks.
The occasion? Bid day, a moment when Emory’s sororities inform new members of their acceptance into their new lifelong communities. The practice dates back decades — to the establishment of Emory’s sororities in 1959, a few years after the University welcomed its first co-ed class in 1953.
As preparations wrapped up at the lodges, sorority members congregated, picked up cutouts of their respective Greek letters and walked together to McDonough Field, where the potential new members (PNMs) were waiting to open envelopes with cards that told them which sorority they would be joining.
For both the leaders and participants in the rush process, this year was especially unique. A Georgia snowfall on Jan. 9 prevented the rush process from operating on its regular schedule, causing the second day — normally dedicated to the sororities' philanthropies — to be combined with the first. Further, bid day was moved from Jan. 12 to Jan. 18.
The rush process began on Jan. 7 with convocation, in which PNMs met their Rho Chi groups. A temporarily disaffiliated sorority member guided each group of PNMs through the rush process.
Raina Sachdev (27C), who served as a Rho Chi this year, said it was “fun” watching PNMs move through recruitment. For Sachdev, being a Rho Chi was a decision that reflected the exertion of participating in recruitment directly.
“I didn’t feel like I had the social battery to go through rush every day,” Sachdev said. “So, I felt like this was a much more removed position that I felt was better suited to me.”
Suzann Donovan (25C), who served as a Rho Chi alongside Sachdev, shared a similar sentiment and expressed the importance of Rho Chis throughout the recruitment process.
“It’s kind of complicated, so it’s helpful to have someone who’s been through it to ask questions to,” Donovan said.
During the first official days of rush, PNMs participated in various events, such as learning about the sororities’ values and philanthropies. Then, on Jan. 9, participants logged onto their rush app, PNM Companion, at 10 a.m. to see what houses selected them to advance to the sisterhood round. During this stage, participants could visit up to five houses for 45 minutes to learn about the relationships between members.
As Friday’s and Saturday’s rounds were rescheduled due to snow, rush resumed on Jan. 12 with the preference round, in which participants got to visit up to two houses for one hour each. At the end of the day, participants submitted two, one, or zero houses for final consideration.
Then, on Jan. 18, dozens of PNMs who had waited nearly a week for their final decisions lingered on McDonough field. Jaire May (28C) noted that she already feels connected to the wider Emory community through the recruitment process, including with students who joined different sororities.
“Even a lot of the sororities I know I’m not going to be in, if I talk to a girl who’s in that sorority, I’ll still say ‘Hi’ to her if I see her out,” May said.
Dheyala Simrin (27C), a transfer student who arrived on Emory’s campus at the beginning of last semester, said that the recruitment process had been a “little overwhelming” but a good experience. For Simrin, rushing was both a way to meet new people and engage further with students she had already met during her first semester on campus.
“I’ve found a lot of friendly faces on campus in even sororities I’m not doing recruitment for,” Simrin said. “I see them on campus, and it’s really nice to see.”
At 1 p.m., PNMs opened their bids, and celebratory screams rang across the lawn. After a few minutes, they raced across the field toward their new sisters, who ran with them up the stairs behind McDonough Field toward the sorority lodges. Ansley McCaffrey (28C), a new member of Alpha Delta Pi, reflected on how those first moments felt.
“It was definitely very overwhelming,” McCaffrey said. “It was a lot, but very fun at the same time.”
Rebecca Lesser (28C), who is now part of Gamma Phi Beta, described her first few days in her sorority and the budding friendships between new and current members.
“All the girls are super friendly, super welcoming and they all just really want to get to know us,” Lesser said. “The events they’ve been hosting have been really cute and everything too.”
With bid day over, the most stressful part of the semester for many new members is behind them. Now is when both sides of recruitment — PNMs and current members — can reap the rewards of their effort. Dinners, socials and bonding events lie ahead. More importantly, in the next few months — amid the dozens of fresh faces, names, stories and untold hours spent in the lodges — countless new lifelong connections will form, and bid day will be remembered as the moment those friendships first began.
