Students celebrated the end of formal fraternity recruitment last Saturday night with the annual “Boys’ Bid Night” festivities.
New pledge classes filled up as male students received bids throughout the day from various fraternity chapters around Grounds. Houses up and down Rugby Road hosted parties to welcome new members.
Last year more than 10 University students went to the emergency room from alcohol-related incidents in the time during and following IFC Recruitment, resulting in stricter recruitment regulations this year imposed by both the Inter-Fraternity and Inter-Sorority Councils.
The IFC prohibited hard liquor at any house or event this year during the recruitment process, inlcuding Bid Day. The council further mandated six or more brothers must be sober at all events. Boy’s Bid Night parties were not permitted to begin before 9 p.m. and were required to end by 2 a.m.
Quantitative data on drinking incidents is “tricky,” Director of Student Health Chris Holstege said. “It’s hard to know. You can’t tell if it’s because of Boys’ Bid Night, [or] if they’re locals or students. These days there is drinking that goes on every weekend.”
There was no noticeable increase in the number of students treated for alcohol-related problems, Holstege said. Removing hard liquor from the event may have contributed to the decrease of alcohol-related incidents surrounding Boys’ Bid Night, he said.
“The hard liquor is very tricky because people don’t realize the alcohol content in that as opposed to beer,” Holstege said. “Hard liquor is where people get into trouble most often.”
Many sororities and fraternities scheduled mandatory dinners at the start of the night, or assigned pledges a buddy for the night to ensure their safety.
After previous Boys’ Bid Nights saw increased reporting to the University Sexual Misconduct Board, this year’s events were also coupled with an anti-sexual assault campaign the Handprint Project, which was co-sponsored by the IFC, One Less, One-in-Four, Democracy for America and the Honor Committee.
“The campaign was all over social media,” said fourth-year College student Karina Carlson, who worked on the campaign. “You couldn’t go on Facebook without seeing someone’s profile picture or cover photo of the handprint. Most people knew [about it].”
Each fraternity on Grounds displayed a banner on Boys’ Bid Night with the brothers’ handprints, representing their commitment to bystander intervention.
“The banners served as a visual representation and reminder of commitment to the Handprint Project’s mission and to visually show support,” Carlson said.
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