Bid Day at UMD
By Samantha Hooley
March 6, 2023
Image Credit: Samantha Hooley for The Campus Trainer
Bid Day at many universities is full of high emotion and exciting themes to welcome home new member classes. Greek organizations go all out with representing their chapters and celebrating the hard work put into the recruitment process. This day looks different for everyone from new members to current members and to the members who organize it all.
Bid Day is when those who went through the recruitment process receive a bid from a remaining sorority on their list of houses.
Emma Nehman, a senior mathematics major, is also the VP of Membership for the Delta Gamma sorority. People in leadership positions like these help Bid Day dreams come true. Nehman said, “the sleepless nights and hard work [she] had put in for the past month finally paid off.”
Other current members of sororities like Cat Gilligan, a sophomore behavior and community health major, and a member of the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority, felt similarly to Nehman.
Gillian mentioned how the recruitment process took place over multiple weeks and “was stressful, yet very rewarding to see how much the hard work paid off in the end,” she said.
Gilligan also discussed other ways members of her sorority helped leading up to Bid Day. “Girls who live in the house or members of MC ‘22 also came to help set up the morning, which was a great time for all of us to bond,” she said.
MCs, or member classes, is a way to refer to the group of women recruited in either the Spring or Fall of a specific year.
AOII’s bid day theme was “Cherry on Top,” according to Gilligan, and she said they had a lot of red decorations along with a Shirley temple station. Delta Gamma’s theme was “222: Right Place, Right Time,” according to Nehman.
“My inspiration for our bid day theme came from my newfound appreciation for angel numbers and signs from the universe/higher powers ever since my mom passed away,” Nehman said.
Nehman also said how she feels like this theme is perfect for new members who may still have unsure feelings when going through this process.
Emma Tufo, a sophomore journalism major and new member of Delta Gamma, said she thought DG’s theme was original. Her favorite part of bid day was when she arrived at the DG house and all the current members were waiting. The current members were waiting outside of the DG house, and welcomed the new members as they exited the bus that transported them from Stamp Student Union.
Gilligan also discussed her excitement, but on the other end of it.
“My sorority and I jumped up and down with signs by the front door awaiting the bus to arrive with the new members. When the new members came running through the door, it felt like a movie,” she said.
Gilligan said Bid Day this year as a current member was “so much more carefree,” than when she was a new member, but she “knew AOII was the right place for [her] since everyone was so welcoming that day and had the biggest, most genuine smiles.”
Bid Day is when those who went through the recruitment process receive a bid from a remaining sorority on their list of houses.
Emma Nehman, a senior mathematics major, is also the VP of Membership for the Delta Gamma sorority. People in leadership positions like these help Bid Day dreams come true. Nehman said, “the sleepless nights and hard work [she] had put in for the past month finally paid off.”
Other current members of sororities like Cat Gilligan, a sophomore behavior and community health major, and a member of the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority, felt similarly to Nehman.
Gillian mentioned how the recruitment process took place over multiple weeks and “was stressful, yet very rewarding to see how much the hard work paid off in the end,” she said.
Gilligan also discussed other ways members of her sorority helped leading up to Bid Day. “Girls who live in the house or members of MC ‘22 also came to help set up the morning, which was a great time for all of us to bond,” she said.
MCs, or member classes, is a way to refer to the group of women recruited in either the Spring or Fall of a specific year.
AOII’s bid day theme was “Cherry on Top,” according to Gilligan, and she said they had a lot of red decorations along with a Shirley temple station. Delta Gamma’s theme was “222: Right Place, Right Time,” according to Nehman.
“My inspiration for our bid day theme came from my newfound appreciation for angel numbers and signs from the universe/higher powers ever since my mom passed away,” Nehman said.
Nehman also said how she feels like this theme is perfect for new members who may still have unsure feelings when going through this process.
Emma Tufo, a sophomore journalism major and new member of Delta Gamma, said she thought DG’s theme was original. Her favorite part of bid day was when she arrived at the DG house and all the current members were waiting. The current members were waiting outside of the DG house, and welcomed the new members as they exited the bus that transported them from Stamp Student Union.
Gilligan also discussed her excitement, but on the other end of it.
“My sorority and I jumped up and down with signs by the front door awaiting the bus to arrive with the new members. When the new members came running through the door, it felt like a movie,” she said.
Gilligan said Bid Day this year as a current member was “so much more carefree,” than when she was a new member, but she “knew AOII was the right place for [her] since everyone was so welcoming that day and had the biggest, most genuine smiles.”