Rethinking pick-ups

We wrote on Friday that Bicker is a good system, permitting bicker clubs to achieve a unity, enthusiasm, and year-to-year consistency that might not be possible through sign-ins. We are glad the Bicker process is available as part of Princeton's menu of social options. At the same time, while a certain amount of disappointment is inevitably a part of Bicker, we believe the Bicker clubs could do more to minimize the pain they impose by rejecting bickerees every year.

We believe they would do well to rethink the need for pickups. When a Bicker club's members parade across campus, screaming and banging pots and pans and uncorking champagne over the door of each new member, they do more than just enthusiastically welcome their chosen sophomores. They send a loud and unmistakable signal to the rest of campus, effectively rubbing in the rejections of those who were not selected. A bleary-eyed sophomore, who has just learned of her rejection, may not even be able to get off campus without hearing the raucous cheers of club members who are picking others up, and leaving her out.

It wasn't always this way. Welcoming new members is rightly a loud, enthusiastic and bittersweet ritual, but before the street split between Bicker and Sign-In clubs, sophomores were informed of their bids and would make their way out to their club of choice to join the party. It was loud and happy, but it did not impose today's selective spectacle on the rest of campus.

There's something cruel about this spectacle, and the campus would be better off without it. The older system could be updated for the present, with club members welcoming their chosen newbies at the clubhouse door. Bicker's benefits would remain, and its worst drawback would be reduced, if the clubs were to enjoy the day in a spirit of empathy, locating their revels away from those who have just been denied the opportunity to join in.