Citing safety concerns, 16 national sorority organizations have banned their UVA chapters from participating in what is historically one of the biggest party nights for University Greeks.
Sorority women at UVA are banned from attending parties scheduled for this coming Saturday, January 31. The evening known as “Boys’ Bid Night” celebrates the day University men accept fraternities’ invitations to pledge, and it’s also a major party night for sorority women, who can’t host their own house parties. According to a recent story in the Cavalier Daily, the directive came from each of the national sorority organizations with chapters at UVA.
“We believe the activities on Men’s Bid Night present significant safety concerns for all of our members and we are united in our request that the 16 NPC sororities not participate,” Tammie Pinkston, international president of Alpha Delta Pi, told the Cavalier Daily.
Michelle Bower, a spokeswoman for the National Panhellenic Council, an umbrella organization whose members include all 16 of the sororities represented at UVA, confirmed that the mandate came from sorority leaders, not the NPC.
“The inter/national presidents & organizations with chapters represented at the University of Virginia discussed this issue (deeply) and issued the letter to the presidents of their own chapters present on UVA,” she wrote in an e-mail. She also explained that there’s a statutory basis for the sororities’ decision: Unanimous Agreement X, adopted by NPC chapters in 2011, which states that college sorority councils “shall denounce the participation of Panhellenic women in men’s fraternity events when or where the primary purpose is recruitment.”—Nicolette Gendron and Graelyn Brashear