An Interfraternity Council tradition spanning more than 50 years continued Wednesday night as 282 men crossed over the TCU seal in Sadler Hall. After going through three rounds of IFC Men’s Recruitment, 318 men gathered in the Brown-Lupton Student Center Ballroom at 6 p.m. to receive their bid cards.

Josh Schutts, coordinator of fraternity and sorority life and IFC adviser, said recruitment started last Saturday with an information session. The first round started with 336 men visiting all the IFC houses.

On bid day, 318 men received bids, and of those, 282 accepted the offers, Schutts said.

“About 95 percent of men who went through recruitment received bids,” Schutts said.

Matt DiLeo, IFC president, said this year the number of men who received bids was an improvement compared to last year, when 80 men didn’t receive bids.

“IFC’s main goal is to get potential new members bids,” DiLeo said.

A potential member can receive more than one bid, and he is able to choose the fraternity he wants by signing the corresponding bid card, Schutts said.

After signing the bid card, he said, the new member went by a check-out table and got into his pledge group. Once with his pledge group, the new member received a T-shirt from that fraternity.

“The process started at 6 p.m. with the signing of the bids,” Schutts said. “It was probably finished about an hour and a half after that.”

The different pledge classes went and stood by the stairwells by the Student Center Ballroom until they were ready to be taken to Sadler Hall, Schutts said.

After all the men were done with signing their bid cards, DiLeo led the different pledge classes by fraternity into Sadler Hall.

Once in Sadler Hall, DiLeo gave the pledges a speech congratulating them on receiving a bid and becoming a part of TCU’s Greek community. After the speech he then led them through the doors to the awaiting fraternity, Schutts said.

“The IFC tradition is that every new pledge class cross over the TCU seal,” Schutts said. “It’s been going on since the 50s.”

The people who were waiting on the lawn of Sadler Hall were mainly members of IFC fraternities, some women from sororities and passers-by who happened to see the event, Schutts said.

The order of the fraternities to go through Sadler hall was, Phi Kappa Sigma, Phi Gamma Delta (FIJI), Delta Tau Delta, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Lambda Chi Alpha, Phi Delta Theta, Sigma Chi, Kappa Sigma, Sigma Phi Epsilon and Pi Kappa Phi, Brandon Phillips, said Brandon Phillips, president of Phi Kappa Sigma.

Dileo said in the past shuttles were used to take the potential members to the Kelly Alumni Center for the Pi Kapp and Sig Ep events.