The Interfraternity Council (IFC) Bid Day kicked off last Friday, Sept. 12, featuring the popular Greek Village hill running from all eight of Mercer's IFC fraternities: Phi Delta Theta, Kappa Alpha Order, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Pi Kappa Phi, Alpha Tau Omega, Sigma Nu, Beta Upsilon Chi and Lambda Chi Alpha.
Bid Day is an annual day in fraternity and sorority groups that indicates the end of the rushing and recruitment process and the beginning of the formal acceptance of members into their new brotherhoods and sisterhoods. The Bid Day process begins with each member being assigned their fraternity, known as 'home' to the members.
Mercer's particular tradition then features the new recruits and select executive board members lining up just outside of Greek Row, and then 'running home' by sprinting towards their respective fraternity houses. This process is generally fast, emotional and, at times, dangerous. When the new members reach the outside of the fraternity house, they are greeted by already-established members and led inside the house to begin formal initiation. This chain of events then repeats for every fraternity until all recruits are inside their respective houses, a process lasting an hour and a half. Once this routine is finished, Bid Day ends and the month-long process of rushing is complete.
Jacob Hossler '28 is an English and Law and Public Policy double major at Mercer University. While not serving as the Sports Editor at The Cluster, he enjoys running, writing and photography.
