Here we go- Covid in Sororities

[sigmagirl2000]

I’m a day late on this, but didn’t see it posted already .... link

[Cheerio]

I said this in another thread: I'm really not looking forward to the in-person/on campus/in-town return of students to the local college.

[pinkflamingo]

Oklahoma State, my alma mater and the campus in question, had an in-person bid day yesterday after virtual recruitment all week. I of course trolled the instagram pics. Not much social distancing, and some mask-free pics. This semester should be interesting. I was surprised at the number of girls participating. About the same as last year. From what I understand, quota was 52.

[PersistentDST]

Originally Posted by Cheerio

I said this in another thread: I'm really not looking forward to the in-person/on campus/in-town return of students to the local college.

That’s why I’ll be working from home. I love my students, but I just don’t think campuses are safe.

I saw pictures of girls at OK State, Auburn and Alabama with masks off or under their chins/noses. No social distancing whatsoever. I even saw family members visiting with no masks on.

It seems counter-intuitive to have a huge in-person bidday after spending the whole week virtually recruiting. Once you have a ton of people in one location, you are back to ground zero, regardless of the isolation you did during recruitment. It sucks because I know everyone wants to celebrate, but yikes!

[Titchou]

Alabama did virtual all week and then in person Bid Day...pic of all our 100 plus pnms with masks in front of the house. Just wondered how many were there without masks!

[ForrestGrump]

Due to the spiking COVID infection rate in the state, my alma mater decided a week before formal recruitment to make everything virtual for Open House, Sisterhood and Philanthropy rounds, but let the chapters individually decide if they wanted to do Preference in-person or virtually. The campus has such strict social distancing controls in place in the sorority dorms that chapters wanting to do in-person could host no more than 10 PNM's at a time, which meant a lot more individual parties. Between that and general risk aversion, my chapter opted to do a virtual Preference. Sounds like literally half the houses did in-person and half virtual. It will be interesting to see if that had any impact on PNM's opinions and choices.

[ceciliaky]

Seeing posts on FB that national Panhellenic has issued a statement telling groups they have to go to virtual pref & bid day.

I hope it’s just a rumor - DD has a carefully planned small group bid day tomorrow. 😳

[UVASquirrel]

I'd be curious to see how many of these girls testing positive actually have symptoms or are they asymptomatic?

[thetalady]

Originally Posted by ceciliaky

Seeing posts on FB that national Panhellenic has issued a statement telling groups they have to go to virtual pref & bid day.

Does NPC have the authority to dictate virtual vs. in person rounds nationally? I thought that was a decision left to universities and Panhellenic organizations to decide.

Considering we are well into fall recruitment already, it would be a little late to try to impose any new policy....

[TXDG]

Originally Posted by UVASquirrel

I'd be curious to see how many of these girls testing positive actually have symptoms or are they asymptomatic?

I assume some of them are actually sick - or else why get tested?

[TXDG]

Our chapter at Texas A&M did a great job with Bid Day yesterday. Little pods of 10 sisters (5 actives and 5 new members) held individual celebrations, popped by the house to take pictures, etc. Mostly with masks on, too. I’m not sure what the other chapters on campus did but it still looked like the DG’s had a great - safe - Bid Day celebration.

[robinseggblue]

Originally Posted by Titchou

Alabama did virtual all week and then in person Bid Day...pic of all our 100 plus pnms with masks in front of the house. Just wondered how many were there without masks!

I watched parts of the livestreams that different houses did because I was curious about precautions. I know everyone has good intentions, but I saw plenty of risky behaviors with regard to COVID--such as masks being pulled down or coming down while people were talking in close proximity, hugging everyone they saw, big clumps of girls (even if girls were directed to sit in pods), pictures with the entire MC, etc.

I think that with the return of college students to campuses, the spread of COVID on campuses is inevitable. I just don't think that the average college student is responsible enough to take the appropriate precautions.

[Titchou]

Originally Posted by thetalady

Does NPC have the authority to dictate virtual vs. in person rounds nationally? I thought that was a decision left to universities and Panhellenic organizations to decide.

Considering we are well into fall recruitment already, it would be a little late to try to impose any new policy....

well, I wouldn't think so because Alabama had in person Bid Day as have other schools. The schools I know about it was the school/CPH that made the decisions.

[ChioLu]

My cousins daughter is an Alpha Chi at Oklahoma State. One of the Recruitment days, everyone wore pink and they had matching/coordinating AXO masks in pink. It was her first year on the membership side and they just rolled with the new protocol With ease.

[WregleXO]

Well it was reported today that one sorority and one frat on the Auburn campus are already having to quarantine for two weeks. And classes just started back on Monday. The Plainsmen reported that the sorority was Kappa Kappa Gamma and that the two members that tested positive on Monday were at bid day activities on Saturday