Bid Day signals the end of a fall recruitment process, but not every woman who registered will receive a bid to a sorority chapter.

This year, of the 209 women who started recruitment, 171 women accepted bids on bid day.

“There are many reasons a woman might not receive a bid on bid day,” said Ashley Christman, assistant director of Student Engagement, Fraternity and Sorority life.

The 18 percent of women who did not accept bids on bid day include women who were “no-shows,” meaning they did not come to the first of the three days of recruitment and potential new members (PNMs) who decide to withdraw from the recruitment process.

Women who were not invited back to a party on sisterhood or preference day are called “releases.” These women will not receive a bid from the chapter that released them.

In some cases, a PNM can be released from all four chapters.

Non-matched women, PNMs who intentionally selected a single chapter but were not matched with their single selected chapter through the quota process will also not receive bids.

Less than 5 percent of the women who started recruitment were released, or not invited back to a party, from recruitment on sisterhood or preference day, day two and three of recruitment.

“Just as we do not ask PNMs to explain their priorities when they rank the chapters for selections, we do not require chapters to explain their invite lists or reasons for releases,” Christman said.

When a woman is released or un-matched, Christman calls them directly early in the morning.

“I explain that through the mutual selection process they are released and then explain their three options for involvement in sorority life,” Christman said.

These options are participating in open bidding, participating in formal recruitment the next year or seeking membership in an Independent Greek Council (IGC) or National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) chapter.

The National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) and its four chapters, Alpha Delta Pi, Phi Mu, Zeta Tau Alpha and Alpha Delta Gamma, use Release Figure Methodology (RFM) during formal recruitment to determine the number of invitations each chapter can extend.

The NPC assigns an RFM specialist to each campus to make the calculations using previous campus statistics, chapter sizes and PNMs priorities.

“As the NPC values parity and hopes each chapter receives the same number of new members set through a quota and is about the same size, RFM is in place to help chapters achieve more equal numbers on bid day,” Christman said.

If a chapter does not meet quota following recruitment, then the chapter may use open bidding. This process allows chapters to extend bids to women who either did not participate in formal recruitment or were released.

Lacy Pezzaniti, a junior and member of Phi Mu, participated in recruitment her sophomore year and was dropped from her selection of chapters and eventually withdrew from the recruitment process.

Pezzaniti said she withdrew from recruitment believing that she did not feel at home with the remaining sorority selections she was given.

“Fortunately, the following night I got a call from the recruitment chair at Phi Mu offering me a bid,” Pezzaniti said.

Pezzaniti said that since then, she has felt like she has truly found her home and is thankful for all the amazing women she has met through Phi Mu.

“I feel like being a snap bid has truly made me cherish my membership in Phi Mu and I’ll always be thankful for that,” Pezzaniti said.

The current quota for NPC chapters is 153 members. If a chapter has not reached quota, it can continue to recruit and invite new members.

Numbers for quota are recalculataed each spring semester. Quota for chapter can change based on if women have withdrawn their membership or transfered from UNA.

At this time, ZTA, ADPi and Phi Mu have spots open to invite women.