By Dan FletcherThe Daily Northwestern
As about 50 people milled around the common room at Delta Tau Delta, some of them had more on their minds than winning the video games flashing on the big screen televisions in front of them: They also wanted to win a bid.
A bid is an invitation to join the fraternity, and 15 recruits already had accepted and joined Delt midway through Thursday night, the first night of fraternity recruitment this year, said Weinberg sophomore Dre Collier, a member of Delt.
“So far, so good,” he said. “Things are going smoothly.”
With a few hours left in the video game night, Collier said more bids might be offered to recruits later in the night and in the following days.
A few hundred students – mostly freshmen – were expected to attend fraternity events, which continue through Monday, said Marc Austein, vice president of recruitment for the Interfraternity Council.
“It’s hard to predict (how many students are rushing) because you have a core group of people who have been coming to fraternity events since the beginning of the year, and then you have a group who will come to rush just to check it out,” said Austein, a Weinberg senior and The Daily’s business manager.
Dan Innamorati, a Weinberg freshman, said the recruitment events he attended at Beta Theta Pi and Chi Psi were different than events in the fall.
“It’s a lot more structured,” he said. “This is really the last chance to meet people.”
After dinner and a short break, fraternities begin to offer bids.
“There are people who have come to dinners and such that we already know,” Austein said. “Those people may receive bids the first night.”
Once a bid is offered, each recruit has three options: He can “drop” a bid, meaning he accepts it and will join the fraternity; he can “sit,” or deliberate, before joining; or he can decline the bid altogether.
Dan Choi, assistant recruitment chair for Sigma Alpha Epsilon and a Weinberg sophomore, said his fraternity was looking for “quality over quantity” and “true gentlemen” when offering its bids.
“We look for genuine, passionate and social individuals,” he said. “We look for well-rounded individuals that can contribute to the fraternity.”
Choi said his fraternity held a workshop for its current brothers to plan recruitment and kept in contact with potential members by inviting them to events early in the year.
IFC President and Medill senior Andy Shlensky said the recruitment process was designed to match students with fraternities that fit well.
“We’re tying to create an atmosphere where students join for all the right reasons, and I think we have that with rush,” he said. “It’s not perfect, but we make it the best it can be.”
Fraternity recruitment is a different process from sorority recruitment, which begins Thursday, Jan. 11. Fraternity recruits are not required to register in advance and may move freely from house to house during the events.
Shlensky said the process should be smooth for both new recruits and the fraternities.
“We hope that every person who is looking to join finds a fraternity that fits them well and each fraternity gets the guys they are hoping to get,” he said.
Reach Dan Fletcher at [email protected].
