Spring pledging started on bid night last Friday for three social clubs on campus.
In order for clubs to be eligible to accept pledges in the spring semester they must have less than 50 active members. Frater Sodalis, Pi Kappa and Zeta Rho accepted a cumulative number of 32 students.
Joel Childers, Frater Sodalis president, said the club has 40 active members and accepted 14 pledges, an increase from last spring’s pledge class of three. This is the largest spring pledge class for the club in over 30 years, and the second largest overall in the past 10.
“It’s a continuation of the momentum our fall pledge class helped bring, and a sign that Frats isn’t going anywhere anytime soon,” said Childers, senior biblical test major from Abilene. “We’ve been here since 1943, and even though there’s been times we’ve been fairly small, we’ve never been truly afraid of being too small to continue because we know what we offer is something no one else can offer.”
Frater Sodalis is pledging freshman, sophomores, and juniors. McKennon Cecil, a sophomore sport and recreation management major from Eastland, said he looked forward to pledging Frats because of the members’ willingness to work with him.
“I assumed that all social clubs wanted their pledges and members to fit a profile and be a certain person,” Cecil said. “After meeting the men of Frats and (I) learned that they valued individuality, that perception was changed.”
Zeta Rho offered bids to 13 women. This is also an increase from their spring pledge class last year of eight. Vice President Ciara Beck, a senior interdisciplinary major from Colleyville, said they reached out to freshman, sophomores, and girls who studied abroad that did not get to pledge last semester.
Megan Lavallee, a sophomore communication sciences and disorders for speech pathology major from Tuscola, said she loved the club for its ability to reach out to women individually.
“I’m just really looking forward to the community with these awesome women, Lavallee said. “When I went to Bid Night last Friday, I knew I was home. I’m so ready to be a part of a social club that truly cares for each individual in the club.”
Pi Kappa currently has 22 active members and accepted five pledges. This is down from last spring’s pledge class of nine. President Benjamin Kimble, a senior youth and family ministry and family studies major from The Colony said despite the decline in numbers, it is ultimately about quality and not quantity.
With four freshmen and one graduate student, the club is proud to represent the extremes of the classification spectrum. Hunter Sikes, a freshman business management major from Fort Worth, said although he knew most of the guys already through band, he was excited to grow in the close-knit community.
“I saw the other guys social clubs last semester who were pledging and I knew that Pi Kappa was a smaller club, so it would have been easier to connect to the members better and it made it easier to be on that level with them,” Sikes said. “They have a good sense of brotherhood and community within the small group that they have so that makes it nice.”
