Girls who missed out on rush, don't lose hope: formal recruitment is not the only time of year that offers the opportunity for sorority membership.
During Continuous Open Bidding, the informal process that sororities use to acquire new members during the fall and spring semesters after rush, houses may offer bids to girls that either did not participate in rush at all or dropped out early.
During the spring semester, only those houses that fall below the quota are permitted to participate in COB. However, by the fall semester, when each of the houses has lost its senior members, every sorority is allowed to utilize the system.
"They can ask any girl who did not get a bid to join their house," College junior and president of the Panhellenic Council Drew Tye, a member of Sigma Delta Tau, said.
The Panhellenic Council e-mails out the list of potential new members to recruitment chairs, but chapters also meet eligible women on their own.
"Sisters typically reach out to people they meet through classes, organizations, residence or past recruitment interactions," College junior Mia Kumagai, vice president of recruitment for the Panhellenic Council, wrote in an e-mail.
Unlike formal recruitment, registration is not necessary to participate in COB. More often than not, a sorority will simply contact someone they already know and think would be a good fit for their house.
"They contact the girls . that they thought were special," Tye said. Invitees "can decide whether or not to accept."
When a sorority participates in COB, it holds a series of individual informal events to get to know each potential recruit, though each chapter has a different process.
"Some may do dinners, dessert nights, or board-game events in the chapter common room with all the sisters, inviting potential members to attend," Kumagai wrote. "COB is structured to be a lot like how one would normally hang out and interact with friends."
One participant in COB who is now pledging a sorority, a freshman in the Engineering school who wished to remain anonymous because her sorority instructed her not to comment, said that COB has been "a good experience so far."
"I really liked the girls so I was happy and very excited," to receive an unexpected bid from her sorority, she said. "I don't know them as well as I could yet, but they are being very helpful and welcoming."
And those in charge of recruitment are working to get the word out about COB.
"One of the main goals last year was to try and get it more publicized," College senior Elizabeth Kern, former president of recruitment, said. "We want to let the girls know that it is an option."
