On Tuesday evening, UNC first-year student Ashleigh Womick was anxious with anticipation. Alongside hundreds of other girls in the Carolina Club of UNC’s Alumni Hall, she was about to find out which of the University's 10 Panhellenic sororities chose her to join its ranks.
“I had been thinking about it all day,” Womick said. “It’s been so hard focusing in class.”
"Bid Day” was the culmination of a six-day recruitment process that began on Aug. 22. Over the course of four rounds, potential new members, or PNMs, met with the different sororities, first on Zoom and then in-person. The PNMs gradually whittled down their list of options until bid day, when each PNM was left with no more than two sororities on their list.
Logan Pastor, the president of the Panhellenic Council at UNC, said that recruitment is a “crazy busy time” for sorority chapters. Planning for the process began in January, she said, and required coordination between the 10 sorority chapters, 70 recruitment counselors, roughly 800 PNMs and an eight-person Panhellenic Council.
“It’s definitely a long process for the new members and the chapter members, but I think it’s all worth it at the end,” Pastor said.
Of the roughly 800 PNMs who registered for recruitment, about 650 received bids on Tuesday, said Molly Barr, the vice president of recruitment for the council.
Pastor said that recruitment can help girls who received bids find a place in their community at UNC.
“I really want them to just find their home and find those girls that they connect with most,” she said.
While the PNMs assembled at Alumni Hall on Tuesday evening, sorority chapters gathered together on the Quad at 6 p.m. Dressed according to their chapter’s theme, including wearing secret agent signs and summer camp T-shirts, the members sang and cheered as they waited for their new recruits to join them.
