By Denton Josey, Page Editor
Bid Night is Friday, and men’s social clubs have prepared for a long night of initiation activities.
Because much of what social clubs do during Bid Night is secret, only so much can be learned without going through pledging. However, there seems to be only two sides to it: the pledges and the club’s current members.
Brady Hilton, senior visual communication major from Abilene and president of Frater Sodalis, said Bid Night is one of the more important things the club does, and he expects about 15 graduated members to show up for the event.
“Bid night is a big deal for us, and the whole club comes and other guys from the past,” Hilton said. “Pledging is so you can teach traditions and build boys into men. You can teach them the values that we hold dear to us.”
Bid Night is the only night clubs are allowed to keep pledges out all night. Hilton said Frater Sodalis usually ends between 6 and 6:30 a.m., depending on the number of pledges. This year he expects to have between 20 and 30.
“I would assume men’s pledging is more physically demanding than girls pledging,” Hilton said. “I don’t know exactly what they do.”
Last year, Hilton said, there was a pledge that de-pledged 10 minutes before it ended. “With guys it’s a little harder to get your point across unless there’s incentive,” Hilton said. “They want it to be hard because you feel like there’s accomplishment if it’s hard.”
Going into Bid Night, Hilton said he would advise pledges to not have any expectations and to not give up.
“There’s a purpose in everything we do,” Hilton said. “They may not know that purpose, but they’ll learn in time.”
For Pi Kappa member Daniel Gray, senior social work major from Memphis, Tenn., Bid Night was “a challenging but uplifting experience,” he said. “It was good way to start out getting to know and build relationships with guys in the club.”
Pi Kappa, Gray said, employs activities on Bid Night the founders of the club created, though there are some changes. For Gray, Bid Night shows a potential pledge’s commitment to the club and its pledging process.
“Our club doesn’t ever reject bids,” he said. “We defy the typical club characteristics of clubs on campus.”
Gray said while some clubs focus on physical activity, Pi Kappa is different.
“What we do with our club, based on the seven commitments of the Promise Keepers, focuses on activities. They’re still physical, but usually we have a spiritual point to our activities.”
Another difference in Pi Kappa’s Bid Night process is they don’t keep their pledges up all night.
“We actually let them sleep. The way we look at it is our bid night is like a retreat,” Gray said. “It’s kind of a camping trip and retreat; it’s not your typical bid night.”
Social club hopeful Tyler Goudeau, sophomore business management major from Colorado Springs, Colo., has wanted to be in a club since he came to ACU.
“I’ve heard about it from other people, and my parents did it, and it’s something I always wanted to do,” Goudeau said.
Goudeau said he expects pledging to be time-consuming.
“It should be a fun experience and a challenging experience,” he said.
Goudeau rushed Gamma Sigma Phi and hopes to get a bid from the club.
“It’s just the guys that I met that fit my personality the best,” he said. “Hopefully I can have their qualities as I get older and as I go throughout school here.”
Though he said he heard Sub T-16 has the most challenging Bid Night experience, Goudeau thinks each club’s event is similar in difficulty now.
“I’m a little nervous. I don’t know if I want to stay up all night or if I want to hold a watermelon for three hours,” he said.
