Girls who recently received their bids at the bid day celebrations finding their house. Photo by Keisuke Yoshimura

After a busy week, fraternities and sororities on campus are welcoming new members to the  UND Greek community. Over the course of the last week, fraternity and sorority recruitment occurred adding hundreds of new faces to various chapters.

Recruitment wrapped up for fraternities on Saturday and on Sunday for sororities with bid day.

Bid day is when men and women going through recruitment find out if they received a bid, an invitation to membership, and if so, to what chapter. On Saturday at noon, fraternities called their potential new members offering them a bid.  If they accepted, the bid card was either delivered to them or they were welcomed into the house at an event held by the fraternity.

Sorority bid day took place on the quad near the education building Sunday afternoon.

After the girls received their sealed bids, they gathered near the Education Building on Sunday afternoon.

All at once, they ripped open the envelopes to find out which house had given them a bid. Once bids were opened, the new pledges were welcomed by their sisters.

After celebrating and welcoming new members, each chapter usually continues the celebration at its house. New and established members eat, play games and get to know each other, according to Fraternity and Sorority coordinator Alyssa Walker. Bid day celebrations were completed by 10 p.m. Sunday.

Usually following bid day is a pledging ceremony, or new member ceremony. The ceremony usually occurs within 24 to 48 hours after bid day. This is to formally begin the new member process.

“The new member process is typically six to 12 weeks long—- depending upon the chapter   –and includes education about the chapter’s history, ritual, officer positions, chapter values, membership expectations and responsibilities,” Walker said. “It is also a time when the new members get to know the other members in the chapter.”

The new member period ends with initiation, which is a ritual to formally admit a member into the chapter.  Most chapter initiation rituals are secret and are only attended by members of the chapter and alumni. The fraternity Delta Upsilon’s initiation is open for the public to attend.

Even though formal recruitment is over, the Greek community on campus will still be busy the rest of the semester with a variety of events.

Every semester each fraternity and sorority will hold a philanthropy -— an event to raise money for a cause each house supports. Two houses will be holding their philanthropy this upcoming weekend.  Alpha Phi’s  “Move your Phi’t” 5k walk/run is on Sept. 28 and Alpha Chi Omega’s Par-Tee for CVIC golf scramble is Sept. 29.

Another event that the Greek community as a whole will be participating in the first annual Box-A-Thon — an event to raise awareness and money for the homeless and hungry in the Grand Forks community. The event will be held Oct. 23 and 24. On these days, fraternity and sorority members will be living in boxes on Alpha Tau Omega’s lawn selling s’mores.

This fall, the Panhellenic community will be choosing a new sorority to welcome to UND in the fall of 2015. Potential new houses Alpha Gamma Delta and Kappa Delta, will be making presentations to the community in October.

In October, Phi Delta Theta fraternity will be returning back to UND. “The fraternity and sorority community as well as the Phi Delta alumni are very excited for the chapter’s return,” Walker said.

Ashley Marquis is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. She can be reached at ashley.marquis@my.und.edu.