GreekChat.com Forums - What’s the backup plan for recruitment in August?

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Thank you for sharing your perspective PersistentDST. These decisions are multifaceted and difficult.

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Originally Posted by PersistentDST (Post 2475413)

I work at a university and there are ton of variables in play. Even as some states are opening up freely, leadership at institutions have to make their own decisions. Tuition projections are hard to make because no one has a hold of how many students will not return, defer in the fall or transfer. Many states are cutting funding to public institutions. A lot of institutions are trying to preserve funds early and project budgets based on those possibilities. Just like any other industry, some universities have a better hold on their finances compared to others. I’ve seen some colleges make small cuts to faculty and staff wages, some have laid off staff and some are getting rid of entire academic programs and athletics teams. One small school already closed for good. Unfortunately, one size does not fit all.

Social distancing isn’t going anywhere for awhile and that causes issues with residence halls, as well as the safety and protection of all students, faculty and staff, especially those who have health issues, in offices with high traffic or teach larger classes in lecture halls.

I feel awful for those who are in the balance in regards with how to do recruitment moving forward, since I know the in person aspect is extremely important throughout that period of time. I hope that leadership can find the best solution to allow them get that experience (and not lose money). I know that the NPHC orgs have a lot of challenges to figure out too.

I don’t envy college leadership at all, because it’s hard to make decisions when things are constantly changing. I am hoping that we can go back to normal way sooner than later!

This is so well said. I cannot imagine how things will look for many schools let alone greek life across campuses. As you said what will work for XYZ state might not work for ABC state university. I was chatting with a neighbor the other day and she works as an instructor at a local university and as they made the switch to online classes which her course has a lab component. She was told by her bosses to really think of ways to keep students engaged in online learning basically telling her that they can't really afford to lose students for the next academic year.

Even with states opening things back up, this doesn't translate to things going back to the way they were before the pandemic. At what point we move closer to normalcy only time will tell.

Granted my background is in public health so I'm from the camp of its better to be cautious than to be sorry later on.

Thanks too PersistentDST for your insights. Colleges were already challenged pre-Pandemic. Declining enrollment, rising tuition and many left wondering what a diploma is worth given the massive debt graduates are carrying well into their 30's. Great NYTimes article today about the future of college and the Pandemic challenges which is why many colleges are considering waiting until January. Needing to have only one student per dorm room (where do the rest go? Most college towns have only a certain number of apartments), spread-out seating in lecturers, older professors, etc. Harvard Medical School just announced that first year students will be taught virtually and that Univ. of California system is considering a mix of in-person and virtual. All those changes add extra costs to education which has to be passed along somewhere.

As for the need to "no longer socially distance" once the states open up? That's a recipe for disaster. Social distancing and masks are here to stay if you want to be part of the solution.

Other changes to our lives? Cost of living going up. That hair salon that used to seat 10 patrons now can only seat 5. They have to buy all the equipment, etc. to keep things safe. Your cut will cost more. Our "new normal" lives will be drastically different although I think some people, based on behavior seen in re-opening states, think it can go back to what it was or just with a few 'tweaks'.

I'm likely more cautious since I live in NYC, the epicenter of it all where we live on top of each other and rely on public transportation (which I don't know if I'll take for the rest of this year). College campuses are a microcosm of NYC...kids on top of each other, packed into dorms, sorority houses and in bars. I wouldn't be re-opening schools in person if it were up to me. As AZTheta said it so well, life as we have known it is undergoing a major sea change and shift.

Get ready for a challenging few years, at least until a vaccine that works is found and used widely (already reading about how some people say they'll refuse to take it...which will open a new can of worms.)

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Originally Posted by NYCMS (Post 2475428)

Thanks too PersistentDST for your insights. Colleges were already challenged pre-Pandemic. Declining enrollment, rising tuition and many left wondering what a diploma is worth given the massive debt graduates are carrying well into their 30's. Great NY Times article today about the future of college and the Pandemic challenges which is why many colleges are considering waiting until January. Needing to have only one student per dorm room (where do the rest go? Most college towns have only a certain number of apartments), spread out seating in lecturers, older professors, etc. Harvard Medical School just announced that first year students will be taught virtually and that Univ. of California system is considering a mix of in-person and virtual.

As for the need to "no longer socially distance" once the states open up? That's a recipe for disaster. Social distancing and masks are here to stay if you want to be part of the solution. Here's some information worthwhile considering:

1) That states re-opening have NOT met the 4 qualifying guidelines required by the federal government.
2) The National Academy of Science says that it's not true that the virus can't live in warm weather so the argument for having rush in August/September doesn't hold if this is the case.

Other changes to our lives? Cost of living going up. That hair salon that used to seat 10 patrons now can only seat 5. They have to buy all the equipment, etc. to keep things safe. Your cut will cost more. Our "new normal" lives will be drastically different although I think some people, based on behavior seen in re-opening states, think it can go back to what it was or just with a few 'tweaks'.

I'm likely more cautious since I live in NYC, the epicenter of it all where we live on top of each other and rely on public transportation (which I don't know if I'll take for the rest of this year). College campuses are a microcosm of NYC...kids on top of each other, packed into dorms, sorority houses and in bars. I wouldn't be re-opening schools in person if it were up to me. As AZTheta said it so well, life as we have known it is undergoing a major sea change and shift.

Get ready for a challenging few years, at least until a vaccine that works is found and used widely (already reading about how some people say they'll refuse to take it...which will open a new can of worms.)

I could not agree with you more. I'm in the DC area where things are still escalating. So many people I see in my own area, and certainly in other parts of the country, think that the crisis has passed and we can all get back to our normal lives. I heave heard someone say that wearing a mask is "unpatriotic". Hmmm...I wear a mask if I have to go out because I actually care about other humans and fellow citizens...not sure how that makes me UNpatriotic?! This has all been quite the social experiment and I don't like what it says about the US. I haven't heard of one other country with citizens claiming restrictions and health safeguards are a violation of rights.

Back to recruitment, I'm just not sure how a virtual or semi-virtual recruitment could work, but I think that any chapter that traditionally holds a fall recruitment should at least give it a shot--they'll need every dollar of dues they can get!

Researching the military’s response to COVID in training environments got me thinking about sleeping porches. I’m assuming they will be a thing of the past? Or at least dormant for a few years? Which affects those GLOs budgets and housing. There are so many facets to this. In our chapter, we were 25 in a room that seated 100...we could deal with this. No so chapters (or even lecture halls, for that matter) that hold 400 people.

IMO, life may go back to normal, or close to normal, in places like Wyoming...for some places (I live in NJ) it will be a long time before there is a “normal.” These state schools here and in NY are going to take a hit, I’m sure.

I was in the process of applying to graduate school before this all happened. I’m not sure if I want to go 100% online...it’s all up in the air now.

I was reading on the r/sororities page and there are new members who feel left out because their experiences are entirely unprecedented. I know things like this, or not getting to say goodbye to your friends senior year are “First World Problems” in the grand scheme of things...but I really feel bad for those kids.

Hopefully, somehow, this generation will get to experience Greek Life.

Hearing (from a sorority chapter member, but not confirmed in writing) that UT-Austin will be doing virtual recruitment this fall. The active I heard it from was told by their chapter Panhellenic representative. This is a BIG recruitment... :eek:

Anyone else hearing anything...?

I heard a lot of schools are going to open up for the fall but many have mentioned that bigger classes like gen ed lectures will be done online. Obviously recruitment is in a similar situation so who knows if they will take the virtual route.

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Originally Posted by shirley1929 (Post 2475531)

From what I'm hearing, most seem to like the hybrid recruitment that was put out by NPC. The more I experience different things on zoom, the more I think it's doable for even the larger schools. I was in a recruitment seminar zoom yesterday with over 160 people. we were able to break out into smaller groups for a minute or two and then re-join the bigger group. It worked really well. I could see that working pretty well for the first round...even up to the third round. Have prefs be in person.

The other thing that intrigued me was the idea of doing the initial round with the cameras turned off ...let everyone make their judgement based on personality and not looks. Of course with recs still being required most of them will have head shots anyway

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Originally Posted by UVASquirrel (Post 2475534)

Was this a rush meeting for UVA or your sorority-local chapter only, regional, or national?

Prefs in person after only Zoom meet and greets might be better than nothing at all, but if a girl attends pref she is somewhere on the chapter's bid list.

Cookie, many gen.ed classes are already online so that wouldn't be a new thing, at least at medium-large colleges.

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Originally Posted by *winter* (Post 2475446)

Researching the military’s response to COVID in training environments got me thinking about sleeping porches. I’m assuming they will be a thing of the past? Or at least dormant for a few years?

I'd be willing to bet that there are not many houses left with sleeping porches. The trend for many years has been sleeping in individual rooms (with roommates) rather than the porch concept. I loved ours, but daughter shuddered and couldn't even imagine it.

We have a few houses with sleeping porches and they're not being used this fall. I think the primary plan is to move beds to separate bedrooms for the typical roommate type set-up. MJ Insurance has chimed in on this, as well. We also have houses with small rooms that have to lower house capacity because the rooms are too small for social distancing while sleeping.

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Originally Posted by Sciencewoman (Post 2475547)

Same. Ex: My chapter of initiation is all doubles and I don't see how that could be socially distant.

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Originally Posted by Sciencewoman (Post 2475547)

My chapter at Univ. of Arizona has a sleeping porch and I think they still use it given the size of the chapter. Our "bedrooms" had a day bed in it for hanging out/napping purposes or if you were sick, you could sleep there.I loved the sleeping porch because it meant you could get dressed in your room without disturbing your room-mates.

There's no way to fit more than one bed in the rooms (and I can't see bunk beds fitting either, that's what we had on the sleeping porch) so there's no way to house many girls if they scale back the number of girls living in.

Oh Gosh, I didn't even think of the housing situation. If the chapters have to reduce the number of women living in, where are those women going to live? They will be nard pressed at this late date to find places to rent.

I keep beating the same drum. The implications of this virus are way beyond anything a Hollywood writer could imagine. Behold the butterfly effect (chaos theory) in action, happening right before our very eyes.

Crazy how one virus can set the world spinning in a totally different direction.