What’s the backup plan for recruitment in August?
 

I don’t think there is any way social distancing will be relaxed enough for the large recruitment events that take place in the South starting in August. What is the backup plan for these events?

I expect that several scenarios are being thrown around.

Maybe moving it to spring? I know this is far from tradition but if campuses are allowed to open for winter that would be a good option.

Not doing any research on this, but aren’t some states still fairly lax on this? And are ALL COLLEGES closed now, or are some still in session? So much seems to change on a daily basis...I just wondered.
Also, what about the schools that cancelled spring recruitment? Will it automatically take place in the fall?
So MANY questions....

I was curious about this as well and went to look at the NPC website. They have a committee that this actively working on this! I was impressed that they started a committee regarding "Panhellenic Disruption" as early as mid-March.

Many schools alredy have deferred FR. I'm sure many smaller campuses can easily adapt to that. I won't attempt to think about what the recruitments with 2000 PNMs will do but I would recommend picking up the phone and calling schools like IU.

Even the fall may not be an option...

Universities begin considering the possibility of canceling in-person classes until 2021
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/14/us/un...rnd/index.html

Clearly everything is up in the air right now and there's no answer as to when we'll return to normal. But social distancing until 2022... yikes.

A question to consider if colleges don't re-open until 2021: for universities with large Greek systems and large houses to fill, what kind of struggles will they experience and will temporary policies be put in place for individual chapters in relation to living in the house? If there is a year-long gap in recruiting new members, there could be huge financial impacts, and not just related to housing.

If we don't return in the fall, the financial fallout will be devastating. No new members. No one living in facilities and paying for their operation. Chapters can ride out a decrease in members and rebuild, because they don't have a physical plant to maintain. On the facility side, those without significant building funds are really going to suffer, if we don't come back. And that impacts chapters.

I volunteer in facilities at the local and national level, and I'm a department chair at a large state university. Things were already tight, with lower enrollment and lower recruitment numbers...this is going to have an additional impact. All of our groups are in the same boat, though, and Greek leaders are talking about this and how to handle it. I just don't think there will be any help to bail us out, so we'll have to figure this out.

I know several sorority House Directors. Most are still living in the sorority house, sanitizing everything and getting needed repairs done that would have waited until summer. But they are all worried that they won’t have a job or place to live in the fall.

How are your chapters handling this?

I'm on an NPC committee - housing,actually - and received an email from them yesterday about a task force they have formed to formulate possible scenarios depending on the type of recruitment a campus traditionally has had in the past and how that might look in the coming year.

I’d like to add this: there are some large schools in the southwest—U of TEXAS and U of Oklahoma are two I know of—whose fraternities rush during the summer and assemble their pledge classes and are finished when school begins in the fall.
Fraternities have multiple rush chairs who travel around the state and often have events at the homes of well-to-do alumni. They also invite legacies to dinner and cook-outs. They’ve done this since at the least the 1950’s (UT I know has).
Sooo—I’m wondering what they are going to do? Perhaps rush using Zoom? While not all schools do this, these are some major fraternity systems. Anybody know anything about this?

I am a House Director. I still have a few girls living in the house so I'm unable to sanitize or do anything to prepare the house should we re-open in fall. I have been running the house from the isolation of my room. Very concerned as to whether I'll have a job or a place to live by the end of summer.

I have been concerned for not only this chapter should they be unable to bring in new members next year but also for my own chapter. If they don't have any one in residence paying rent, will they lose their houses that have been around for years? Will the chapters survive? Will the Greek system survive?

DaffyKD

Having read broadly across a variety of national and international publications, I say this as a cautionary observation: we're looking at 18-24 months of major restrictions. Life as we have known it is undergoing a major sea change and shift. The virus is mutating. It is doing what viruses do. It doesn't care.

Our national organizations will have a lot to address. We may be asked to support financially. Another meaning of "membership for a lifetime", folks. At this point, there is serious concern about universities reopening in August/September, for example.

Hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

I'm a house director and I have no idea what's going to happen. About a month ago I had received an email stating they were intending to resign me to my contract but it would be much later than usual (I normally have my contract renewed in mid-March). My contract is up in a month and half and I'm starting to get nervous.

I've heard of some other HDs on my campus have some COVID-related clauses written into their contracts, such as being able to continue living in the facility but with lesser pay if there's no members living in for the semester/year.

I’m concerned about the possibility of high attrition. Many members/parents work to pay for sorority dues and fees and they lost their jobs. Even when and if they return to work, there will be presumably more important living expenses that will need to be paid first. Recruitment will likely look very different than the way it usually does. Social distancing is almost impossible to maintain where large schools hold recruitment.

^^^This.

As of right now some of the SEC schools are setting their recruitment dates and registration will be opening soon.

Thank you Cookie. They do that every year about this time.

My rising Junior daughter is at a large SEC school and is a huge ball of anxiety over all of this. She is a pre-med public health major and takes this virus and its mitigation very seriously. The thought of hundreds of girls in close quarters (literally touching in tight spaces) for weeks on end, getting super run down and sick like they do anyway, with Covid still out and about. She has an overreactive immune system and when she gets sick, she gets SICK. She’s terrified of this virus. This week, we’ve been talking about fall recruitment going on as planned and if so, that she may need to drop out of her sorority. She’s a wreck over all of it. It’s way too soon to call, but I just can’t imagine that large, tight gatherings like that will be able to happen in August. It’s very stressful to think about from a health perspective, but then if rush doesn’t happen, the effects on the Greek system as a whole is a whole different kind of stress.

The longer this goes, the less I can see the traditonal recruitment happening anytime soon.
What chills my blood is those giant houses, especially at the University of Alabama, sitting empty with the mortgage payments marching on. Those budgets are not set up for zero new members in the fall, and there is no way we alumnae can step in to cover the payments.
This is where a small Greek system has an advantage. Zoom recruitments just might work, with new member classes of 20-25 or less. But how do you foster sisterhood among talking heads on screens?
Then again, I can see a huge drop in the number of students enrolling. Greek systems across the country might be suspended for several semesters.
This is NOT a good time for Greeks, friends.

If your daughter "is a wreck" over this (meaning she thinks NPC will force groups to do normal recruitment), she may need to reconsider her major. NPC has a task force in place and is working to determine alternatives for all campuses. I advise a collegiate chapter and am on an NPC national committee so I get all the emails, notices, etc. about the planning. Please know that NPC will recommend the right things, the schools will make the correct choices and any member who is concerned about participating will have options other than resigning one's membership.

I’m reading this thread anxiously from the other side. Hoping that fall recruitment will happen. My daughter is a senior in high school. She is missing so many experiences right now. One of the things keeping her positive is looking to her future in college. I know some may say it’s silly, but she has been waiting to go through recruitment for such a long time. It’s bad enough that she is losing out in senior year. The thought of missing out on the experiences of freshmen year of college is so disheartening.

She's a "wreck" because all the communication she's received thus far is that business will be "as usual" and she's worried she and thousands of others will be put at risk. She does not have that confidence that NPC will shut things down if needed, especially when we see states like Georgia opening up movie theaters on Monday. I don't see how questioning her choice of a major is called for. These young people are concerned and see leaders above them making choices that they don't understand. She doesn't want to have to be forced into a situation that she's uncomfortable with and be faced with a choice to stay or go because of it. A good friend of hers had a 21st birthday party last night where over 20 kids showed up, no social distancing, and we are in a state with stay at home orders until June 10. Like her, I don't have much confidence in ANYONE doing the right thing right now. It's a legitimate concern. I'm glad to know that NPC and individual GLOs are working hard on contingency plans and will share that with her--it would be nice to have some communication on it as in "we are hoping things go as scheduled in the fall but are working on contingency plans in the event that the current situation does not improve by then". That's honestly why I came on here, to see what the "chatter" was, so that I can reassure her that there are serious discussions going on.

Of course talks are going on - and of course until they reach a consensus on a plan, it is going to look like they are moving ahead with the status quo. But if we've learned nothing else over the past 6 weeks or so, it's that things can change overnight. The unknown will always make us anxious, but there is no sense borrowing trouble.

Here's NPC's web site for links (https://www.npcwomen.org/) and I'm sure her GLO's national office should have their up to date information. Have her do the research and quit listening/reading the "tent talk."

Not silly at all. As an educator, I know that the Class of 2020 is having an experience like no other, and not in a good way. I believe they need some "good" to look forward to and some small sliver of normalcy. I know many seniors who are already contemplating sitting out a semester or even a year if colleges choose to go all online for the fall semester. After months of this, they want the traditional classroom and college experience.

Honesty I think it will be depended on what phase the individual state is in at that time. Many of the big SEC schools are well on there way to be in phase 3 by the time recruitment rolls around. If that is the case they should be able to proceed as planned. My personal opinion and from studies I am seeing is that the summer heat should stop a majority of the spread and it won't be nearly as bad as doing it in the winter because of the flu and possibly a second wave of this. As a health care provider I would look to rapid testing to take place and advise anyone who is uncomfortable to maybe skip this round and wait until they are comfortable. The show must go on!

I can’t see any org willing to take on the liability of hundreds of students from all over being packed in houses, and the sharp increase in covid cases that will happen (if there is no vaccine). I can see social distancing in classrooms, maybe housing (single rooms?) but not Recruitment. So, what does that mean? Zoom Recruitment? I know these things are being discussed, but I just don’t see a way for the large SEC schools to do it.

There are far too many girls that rush at SEC schools to do it by zoom. Plus sorority recruitment at schools like Alabama , UGA and Auburn is a big factor in the amount of girls who attend the university. They are looking for the "experience" so for it to go to "zoom' would be a deal breaker for many. Again if a state is in phase 3 of the reopening there is no need for them not to do this. There is actually a great interview with a doctor and dean from UAB that addresses fall classes and events. He spoke of how they are planning for testing and contact tracing so that things hopefully can proceed as scheduled to include large gatherings like greek life and football . I have daughter attending one of these schools and they are choosing rooms next week and there has been no discussion of single rooms. I think if that was something her particular school was doing we would know by now.

That's if they STAY in Phrase 3. I predict, unfortunately, that many places will revert because they 'left' Phase 2 too soon and that certainly can happen overnight in a crowded place like a college campus. Read today that there is a prediction of a worse Coronavirus this winter, on top of the regular flu.

I honestly can't see any school, at least the larger ones, willing to take the risk of thousands and thousands of students in tight spaces and having a spread which would jump like wildfire throughout the student body. I predict many will do classes online for the fall, then adjust back to in-person for spring.

Actually that was addressed in tonight press conference. Apparently the CDC doctor was misquoted or misunderstood.


“I didn’t say it was going to be worse, I said it would be more difficult,” Redfield said. "The issue I was talking about was that it will be more difficult in that we will have two viruses circulating at one time.”

Redfield said he wanted to urge Americans to get the flu shot next season in order to help minimize the number of flu infections in case of a recurrence of COVID-19."


Dr. Fauci and Dr.Brix also said it should not be worse and that they are pretty confident that they have plans on how to contain it so that it will not be like this past time. I will be honest I think you will see universities in Alabama , Georgia, Mississippi and Florida with on campus classes in the fall.

I was on the recruitment call tonight and NMSU is looking in to possibly having a virtual recruitment. Not sure how that would work. They also said they are looking into other options that their peer institutions might be doing.

How many girls normally go through rush at NMSU and how large is the typical pledge class?

Looks like the only have 5 chapters so probably a relatively small one. An online one may work for them but honestly IMOP I think if it has to be done that way everyone should wait until they can do it in person.

Usually about 125-150 signup and new member classes are 17-22. Total is usually about 60. Recruitment is in the fall after classes start.

NMSU has a small Greek Life. 5 chapters, 3 housed, 2 with lodges. The last few years registrations has been below 200. Total is usually around 50-60. This is probably something that wouldn't work for a campus with a large Greek Life.

I agree. In addition, this question popped in my head-what would be the attraction to pledge if everything had to be done at a distance? I would think bonding would be near impossible. Holding virtual new member meetings....initiation? Nope!

Well at least for the new member classes at my school that were going to be initiated after spring break they moved it to the fall. Plus with ritual/secrets/etc. it just wouldn't be possible.

I can tell you we have been advised that NO ritual should be taking place in Zoom or any other virtual space due to security issues.

I have absolutely no idea what the alternative will be.