BSU Panhellenic Recruitment Weekend
Spring has sprung for Greek life as they begin to welcome the new generation of sisters! Bridgewater State University’s Panhellenic Recruitment started this week with the events, Sweets with Sororities on February 1 and Orientation Night on February 2— all leading up to the big event: Recruitment Weekend.
As one of the largest organizations on campus, BSU’s sorority life has many valuable experiences to offer any college student. The joinable sororities participating in recruitment weekend are Gamma Phi Beta, Delta Phi Epsilon, Alpha Sigma Tau, and Phi Sigma Sigma.
While the first two events have already occurred, the entirety of recruitment weekend has yet to pass. The days are all packed with bonding and information for all the potential new members, or PNMs for short. The sororities on campus welcome many different gender identities— including those who use she/her, she/they, and they/them pronouns— and they encourage anyone who wishes to join to take the chance.
Reese Vandermolan (she/her), a senior here at BSU, was more than willing to share information about the weekend in her capacity as vice president of recruitment for the sorority, along with Co-President Catherine Cummings.
For Vandermolan, sorority life is a huge part of her sense of self, and many of the friends and connections that she has gained during her time here have been through Greek life and the sororities. Because of this, she is so excited to get to know all the PNMs and experience these events with them!
Friday 2/4: Sister Night! This is where the PNMs get the chance to get a feel for each sorority and hear about all the differences between them.
Saturday 2/5: Quite a lot happens on this day— with learning about each sorority’s volunteering efforts in the morning, a lunch break, and then it’s back in it again with Preference Night! During this event, PNMs are ideally introduced more thoroughly to up to two of the groups. There the sisters explain to the PNMs the values of their sorority and the reasons they were drawn to it in the first place.
Sunday 2/6: Bid Day! (We, at The Comment, wish all the PNMs good luck— but we don’t want to spoil any of the fun for the day!)
Rebecca Hamel (she/her) is a freshman who is a PNM for this season’s recruitment. She was more than happy to explain her love of the sororities and the sisters, with the main draw for her being the volunteering and charity work.
Hamel, as a people person herself, explained why being authentic in the process was most important to her.
“I don’t want to go into any of the rounds and regret not having been myself,” said Hamel.
Vandermolan stressed the fact that the sororities are not looking for the cookie-cutter media portrayal of what a sorority girl should be.
“Our big thing is that we want people to be themselves,” said Vandermolan. “We don’t want people to have this pre-set idea of what a sorority member is and have that withhold them from going out for recruitment. Everyone is so unique and individual in our Greek life community.”
Also in opposition of the various media portrayals, BSU’s sororities hold their members to high academic standards.
“I’m most excited for prep night, because, hypothetically, if I make it there then at that point it’s the choosing factor, and I know that it’s going to be stressful, but it’s like the ‘trust your gut’ sort of excitement about what’s to come!” said Hamel.
Have the best of times this weekend, PNMs! We hope to see you all in letters come Monday!
