Women’s clubs will be allowed to hand out up to 70 bids to their prospective pledges Thursday night.

Tom Craig, director of student organizations and productions, said several women’s clubs will extend invitations numbering in the 60s, with the most for one club being 70.

When rushing started on Sept. 11,  402 women were registered for rushing. “Now that number has dropped to about 340,” said Craig.

The number of bids women clubs are allowed to give out is dependent upon of the number of prospectives involved in the process.

“Clubs most likely are looking at extending about 60 plus invitations for each pledge class,” Craig said. “Depending on how many accept their invitations or bids, that will determine how many each pledge class has.”

Some prospectives may choose not to accept their bids for different reasons. Craig has been communicating with club sponsors and presidents and said some clubs are nervous about these numbers because they are higher than normal.

“Alpha Kai is really excited for the opportunity to have a larger pledge class than we have had in the past,” said Alpha Kai Omega president, Meagan McBride, senior speech pathology major from Burleson. “But we are anxious to find out the number of pledges we will have. While we hate to limit the number of girls we also know that there’s only so many we can accept due to the number of jerseys and pledge pins and other behind that scenes things that go into pledging.”

Craig attributes this growth in numbers to the growing size of the last few freshman classes and the fact that “clubs have a lot of positive momentum on campus right now, and people want to experience fraternity and sorority life as part of the total collegiate package.”

Final rankings must be submitted by prospectives on Wednesday at 11am. At this time, Craig should know a more precise number of bids that will be given out on Thursday at Call Night.

Craig said most women will get their first or second choice, with the possibility of getting their third, but his goal is for most women to get their first or second choice.

Men’s clubs will also give out bids Thursday evening but they do not have a cap on the number of bids they can give out. Craig said this is because the men’s clubs don’t have to worry about reaching a maximum number of active members.

“Men usually will get their first choice,” said Craig. “Prospectives then move straight through to receiving their bid.”