“It’s probably the best week of my life,” said Alyssa Doyle of Tri Delta. “Even when I was stressed with school, it was still really exciting to meet all the new girls and get to know them and be able to welcome them to Samford and, eventually, my sorority.”
Sorority Bid Day at Samford University serves as one of the loudest days of the year. The shouts heard from Samford’s quad on Sept. 10 were from members of all six sororities welcoming home their newest members.
At Samford, an event of this caliber never goes unnoticed. Spectators from all corners of campus gathered on the northmost edge of the quad to watch as their classmates welcomed home their newest members.
Bid day is the climax of Panhellenic Recruitment Week. It’s the last day of a process that started back in February of this year when junior and senior members of sororities applied to become Rho Gamma leaders. Rho Gamma leaders are pairs of girls who volunteer to disaffiliate from their sorority and guide potential new members on their week-long recruitment experience.
Rho Gamma leader, Lydia Pridemore of Phi Mu, said that she and her partner “had to disaffiliate on June 1st, when Pan[hellenic] registration opened. That’s when we had to take all our stickers off and take our letters out of our Instagram bios.”
She and fellow Rho Gamma leaders, Lillian Cascio and Mary Liz Parker of Tri Delta, were very excited to be able to run home as seniors, having not been able to run home as freshmen due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s so much better than I ever could have imagined, being a Rho Gamma,” said Parker. “It was difficult to completely disaffiliate from my chapter, but I didn’t realize how excited I would be to not only get to learn so much more about all the other chapters but be so happy to watch all the girls I’ve been guiding through recruitment this week run home to their houses.”
Cascio agreed with that sentiment, highlighting that through the laborious process, she felt nothing but excitement.
As each round of Panhellenic Recruitment week passed, some couldn’t help but reflect on previous years of involvement.
Senior Gracie Patterson of Alpha Delta Pi said, “This week was the most amazing way to kickstart my senior year. This past recruitment season was just the most intentional time. This is my third year recruiting. I’ve been recruiting since I was a sophomore, and it’s just been a joy. It’s been an honor to invest in girls and to be a part of their Samford story.”
