For five days, starting on Monday, September 3, 250 women participated in the sorority recruitment process. Re-cruitment in 2012 marked the first year since 1991 that the “all-bid” rule, which stipulated that every potential new member (PNM) receive a bid from one of the University’s three sororities, was not in effect.

Despite the fact that between 20 and 25 women did not receive bids on Sunday, the Recruit-ment coordinators were expect-ing more of a negative reaction to the abolition of the rule than they actually got.

“The women who participated in recruitment understood the na-ture of the process and that we have three sororities and, unfortunately, there is not room for everyone,” Co-Vice President of Recruit-ment junior Pam Duncan said.

President of Tri Delta senior Sar-ah Jersik applauded the abolition of the all bid rule.

“We are all relieved that [the all-bid rule] was revoked” Jursik said. “It didn’t help the PNMs or the houses. It really made it a much healthier process for everyone.”

President of the Panhellenic Council senior Katie Rapp said that despite the new policies, the final number of women accepted into each of the sorority classes “did not change drastically.” Kap-pa Kappa Gamma (Kappa) and Gamma Phi Beta (Gamma Phi) both extended bids to 65 women and Delta Delta Delta (Tri Delta) extended 63 bids.

The numbers for new member classes were determined together by the Colgate Panhellenic Coun-cil and the National Panhellenic Council to maximize the mutual top first preferences of the poten-tial new members and the sorority houses during recruitment.

“Our goal was to get the most amount of women involved in sorority life, and we definitely succeeded,” Rapp said.

The process took place over five days, the last two of which involved the houses inviting a select number of potential new members back for events in the evening. Recruitment culminated in a celebratory bid day on Sunday afternoon as each of the sororities welcomed their new members.

“I love our new class,” President of Gamma Phi senior Louisa Jelaco said. “A lot of hard work paid off and we have an excellent group of women to represent Gamma Phi.”

Large new member classes have sparked conversations and official discussions on campus.

In the Spring of 2011 former Vice President and Dean of the College Charlotte Johnson hosted an open forum about the aboli-tion of the all-bid rule and the pos-sibility of the addition of a new sorority. Students who attended expressed strong interest in add-ing a new sorority to meet the high demand of potential new members during Recruitment. Some attend-ees advocated for the addition of a multicultural sorority.

Contact Carter Cooper at [email protected].