At my campus there were no guys on actual bid day. I pledged in 2008. A few days/weeks later we had a mixer/function. Last year I believe there was a campus wide bid day function the weekend after as well.

My university had something called "Sunday Fun Day". I think that recruitment rules (esp. re: length of the dry period/which day of the week is Bid Day, and rules about social functions inside fraternity houses) have changed in order to prevent this.

Basically how it worked was this: Bid Day was on Saturday, and that was reserved for women-only chapter bid activities. Sunday, each fraternity would host a party (often with bounce houses, water stuff, new sand in their volleyball courts, etc.) and sorority chapters would essentially parade around with their new members (often with the whole chapter in coordinated colors/outfits) going from fraternity to fraternity for a day rager in order to introduce the new members.

There was (is?) also something called Midnight Madness, which I think was the following weekend on Friday or Saturday night, and was the same idea--but now the fraternities would have new members (they called them pledges...) to introduce.

1994. My pledge class was the last the have bid night parties. I think people probably sucked it up, but you still had to get to 7 or 8 pm. Plenty of time to turn down your bid.

That's very different from what we are talking about. In the OLD days, the fraternities would throw big parties on Bid Night and sororities would walk down Greek row with their new pledges in tow partying all night. At my campus, we did this in our new bid shirts. :eek: Yes, all four sororities drank all night in big four inch sewn on letters! (And 18 was the legal drinking age in Louisiana at the time.) I remember Delta Sig made a slip and slide in their front yard, and everyone had to be careful not to get thrown down it. Didn't want to get your new shirt ruined.

I'm not against NOT having mixers on bid day - the focus should be on sisters, not what guys you are going to meet - but I liked what we did, which was have plenty of sister time and then have a party for the sisters, pledges and anyone special in their life who they wanted to invite, male or female. (Many less "I can't believe you are mixing with those douchebags in XYZ" ticked off boyfriends that way.)

But as at many schools the party isn't eliminated, just postponed 24-48 hours, I think the dictates from NPC are kind of pointless.

I think from a risk management standpoint, it's probably best not to do the parties the same night. In retrospect, we were thrown in a very chaotic atmosphere and had not been given any expectations from our chapter. Anything that goes wrong is on the chapter at that point even if the NMs haven't paid a penny to the chapter yet. Wait a couple days, pays some dues, have a meeting to discuss expectations, rules, establish some guidelines THEN have a party. Considering the crazy things we see and hear happening at chapter functions already, I don't think that this is asking too much. We were disappointed to not have those parties anymore after my freshman year, but honestly, we were so excited to get NMs every year that we never dwelled on it.

Have to agree with this. Plus you've got all the fatigue from the whole week of recruitment. Bad things are bound to happen.
People WILL find a way to party, but at least it's not on the shoulders of the sororities.

When I was an undergrad at Kentucky (older days) sorority bid day fell during IFC rush. And at the time, alcohol was allowed during IFC rush. :D

As I recall, NPC bids were handed out in the afternoon and new members celebrated with their chapter the afternoon and into the early evening. Some pledge classes (new member classes) voted which fraternity party they wanted to attend (or start off at) and other pledge classes already had the fraternity picked out by the actives. The social chairs of the fraternity and the sorority would coordinate the timing so that once the sorority pledges arrived, the fraternity men would still be somewhat sober ;) and often do something special - like serenade them. This often served as an effective recruiting tool since the fraternities could brag “Look at who we get at our parties!” :cool:

IFC rush parties started around 7 p.m., so the sorority pledges (and some active members) usually didn’t show up until maybe 8 p.m. give or take. Maybe stay for an hour or so as a group. Some stayed on, others went to other fraternity parties, and quite a few went back to the house or dorm.

we had to wait until midnight on bid day to start drinking with the fraternities - and we couldn't wear letters, so all of us seemed to have circumspect bid day shirts (often in our colors, but not mentioning the actual sorority). This was 1992/1993/1994. I feel kind of old.

We usually had an All Greek Mixer on Bid Night.

I have mixed feelings about it, though. The sorority whose bid you didn't accept would sometimes be nasty to a newly bidded Alpha, or hang on them, crying. Either way, it was embarrassing, as emotions were still running high.

That sounds absolutely perfect and awesome in theory, but (as in the above example) potentially dicey in practice.

TTT!

It is!