By Colter Hettich, Features Editor
After receiving their bids Thursday, students pledging a social club endured the first, and notoriously most strenuous, night of pledging: Bid Night. Although the administration has tightened the reigns on clubs for Bid Night and pledging as a whole, club m embers were determined to make it a night to remember.
Alpha Kai Omega put two to three months of preparation into the night. Alpha Kai President Erin Chappell said each club must have an approved, Bid Night agenda, so careful planning is essential.
“You have to know exactly what’s happening every minute of the night,” Chappell said.
Derrick Bibb, Sub T-16 president, said he and fellow club members started planning for Bid Night in May. Friday marked the one-year anniversary of Bibb’s promotion from “Gob,” a Sub T pledge, to an official member, or “Subber.”
“This is our chance to show [the pledges] why this is so important to us,” Bibb said. “It’s a brotherhood.”
He said the night’s events were “exactly, 100 percent like we did it last year.”
With rules forbidding classic, Bid Night ingredients, such as “any activity that requires pledges to recite knowledge orally” or “any activity that involves water unless in a swimming pool with appropriate supervision,”clubs were forced to moderate their agendas. Others, like Sub T, changed nothing.
Eric Gentry, GSP president, said the Kinsmen’s night went smoothly and he was impressed with this year’s pledge class.
“We were in line with the pledging requirements from last year, so we didn’t have to change anything,” Gentry said. “We believe in the pledging process because it creates brothers in ways you couldn’t understand unless you have been a part of it.”
Although some may have their differences, every club seemed to agree unanimously on one thing: the upmost essentiality of Bid Night. For Sigma Theta Chi, the night meant keeping track of 48 pledges, the most possible.
“We’re lucky to have these girls,” said Suzanne Langston, Sigma Theta Chi president.
“But Siggies create a reputation throughout the year, and I think [the number of pledges] speaks highly of that.”
