Long, hot August days of sorority recruitment came to a ceremonious end in Colonial Life Arena on Sunday with Bid Day. After approximately 1,700 young women participated since the start of recruitment on Aug. 11, approximately 1,200 participants received bids, or were accepted by a sorority chapter.
"So much work goes into Bid Day," third-year psychology student Emily Gigantino told SGTV. "We prepare for the new members to come in, and we practice our song and cheers."
As a culmination of what potential new members, or PNMs, have gone through with each other and with their student leaders, Bid Day reveals to them who their new, for-life sorority sisters are.
PNMs are guided through their time as recruits by Pi Chis. Pi Chi is not a sorority chapter but a label indicative of a sorority member who has disaffiliated from her chapter in order to lead recruitment without her personal bias or that of PNMs. There are Pi Chis from all of USC's sorority chapters.
"We fully disaffiliated July 1, which meant removing all sisters on social media, not wearing [sorority chapter] shirts, not going to the houses, etc.," third-year business student Trudee Wiltshire told The Daily Gamecock.
Wiltshire said that on bid day, several waves of PNMs at a time received T-shirts that would reveal the chapter into which they have been accepted, and the Pi Chis revealed their home chapters and re-affiliated with them.
"I wanted to get involved with Greek Life because I wanted to make friends for life and have academic support throughout my years at USC," second-year pre-pharmacy student Jentry Ward said. Ward received a bid for the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority chapter.
"I hope to become involved with a committee that I'm passionate about and work with Alpha Gamma Delta's philanthropy: Diabetes Awareness and Research," Ward said.
Gigantino also said that Bid Day essentially paves the way for the new members' futures at USC.
"[Bid Day] really shows them a group of girls that they have a lot of things in common with, with values and things that they want to do, so they can find their way at USC," she said.
Emily Hett, a first-year nursing student, says the "sisterhood aspect" of sorority life drew her in, giving an out-of-state student such as herself a way to bond with others.
"It helps make a big school feel a little more personal and small," Hett said.
New members literally ran into the arms of their sorority sisters upon receiving their bids, and each chapter celebrates their new additions at various locations after the ceremony.