By Rider Farris | Reporter
Following the conclusion of formal Panhellenic sorority recruitment each year, some organizations extend the opportunity of membership to students through continuous open bidding [COB] or continuous open recruitment [COR]. The alternative recruitment process allows sororities to increase their numbers if they do not fill a certain quota from the formal recruitment process in the weeks following formal recruitment.
Dallas junior Emily Wagers, member of Alpha Delta Pi, was one of those women. She joined her organization in the weeks following traditional formal recruitment.
“If you want to have all the options, you have to go through the full week of recruitment,” Wagers said. “But, if you don’t really care and you’re pretty set on one of the chapters that typically does COR/COB, then it’s just so much easier to go ahead and do that.”
Wagers was reached out to by members of Alpha Delta Pi and asked to attend continuous open recruitment events during the first weeks of her second semester. She attended two events, or “rush dates,” where she got to meet students in Alpha Delta Pi and learn about their organization. Afterwards, Wagers received a bid.
One difference between continuous open bidding and traditional formal recruitment is that there are fewer membership options. Not all sororities offer continuous open bidding recruitment every year.
“COR is easier, but you don’t have all the options,” Wagers said. “You never really know which chapter is going to do it each year. It’s kind of a guessing game.”
If a sorority meets its membership quota during formal recruitment, they will not hold continuous open bidding events or extend any additional bids. To find out about continuous open bidding events and opportunities, it is best to seek information out from members of each sorority.
Huntington Beach, Calif., junior Olivia De Salvo, member of Alpha Chi Omega, received her membership through traditional formal recruitment and agreed with Wagers that formal recruitment is more of an intense experience. However, De Salvo said that the continuous open bidding process is one that is more personal.
“I think that [people who go through continuous open bidding] know the girls in the sorority better going through their recruitment,” De Salvo said. “Because I didn’t know anyone in Alpha Chi when I went through [formal recruitment].”
“I don’t know if it was the girls in charge of what we were doing, but we felt very segregated from the formal recruitment girls, which was understandable,” Wagers said. “We were behind in initiation stuff and different things like that, but it was tough to get us in with the group for that first semester. But now, it doesn’t make a difference.”
Continuous open bidding gives women who missed the formal recruitment deadline, decided to not participate in formal recruitment and those who may have dropped from formal recruitment another chance to find their home within Baylor’s Greek life community. The alternative to formal recruitment also allows women to join Greek organizations without having to wait until the next round of formal recruitment the following January.
“I think it’s a great alternative,” De Salvo said. “I think there’s a lot of girls that maybe didn’t end up where they wanted to during formal recruitment and did the COB process and ended up in a great sorority and love it and made lots of friends.”
