Music boomed from loudspeakers while girls decked out in neon danced and posed for pictures.

While the scene on Central Campus this afternoon may have appeared to be some semblance of a midday party, the festivities were actually a portion of the bid day ceremony that concludes the Greek community’s formal recruitment process.  

Formal recruitment serves to help women interested in joining the Greek community get to know the various chapters and decide which house is their best fit.

The week-long process includes events anywhere from an informal pizza party to the formal Preference Night, in which women select the three houses they feel best suit them.

At the conclusion of the week, women are given bids and welcomed into their houses as new members. The women are officially initiated into their sororities later in the semester.

Bids were extended to new members by 13 of Iowa State’s 15 sororities today at the Bid Day ceremony. New members were welcomed with balloons and t-shirts and were invited back to the chapter after the ceremony to participate in activities with active members.