The New York Times detailed the latest in known coronavirus clusters within sorority and fraternity life nationwide, while also including comment from National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) CEO Dani Weatherford regarding recruitment and overall demand for the sorority experience. Last Monday, NPC, an umbrella organization covering 26 sororities with 400,000 undergraduate members, recommended that all sororities move to a fully virtual recruitment this fall. The Times identified at least 251 cases of coronavirus tied to fraternities and sororities—including major clusters at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Mississippi, and the University of Washington. In her comments, Weatherford noted that students are pining for the connections that college life can offer and that this interest is showing up in recruitment numbers. NBC News offers a similar round-up of COVID-19 cases tracked to fraternity and sorority houses.
The Washington Post reports that North Carolina State University (NC State) has followed suit with UNC-Chapel Hill and pivoted to virtual instruction following clusters of COVID cases on campus. The school’s chancellor places some of the blame on the fraternity/sorority system, saying “In the last two days alone, we’ve identified three COVID-19 clusters in off-campus and Greek Village houses that can be traced to parties and behavior outside of our community standards and the governor’s mandates… and another seven Greek houses that have been quarantined due to a number of additional positive cases.”
VICE continued its coverage of the sorority community’s response to COVID-19 with coverage of an outbreak within the Pi Beta Phi chapter at Oklahoma State University. The piece by reporter Katie Way explores the lack of oversight and enforcement of public health protocols within the sorority community.
Following former Editor Liz Rinck’s retirement, all questions regarding media inquiries should now go to PR Specialist Kiera Helm and Chief Marketing Officer Julianne Butler.
We will host our September workforce live discussion on Tuesday, Sept. 1 at 8:30 p.m. EDT. Sign up to join us. Assistant Director of Alumnae Engagement Laura Stelsel will join us to facilitate a discussion on change management. We hope you can join us! This same discussion will be offered for advisors on Tuesday, Sept. 8 and alumnae chapter officers on Tuesday, Sept. 15.
Kara Van Duzee, recruitment committee chairman, is resigning. She has agreed to remain in office until Oct. 1 or when Grand Council appoints her replacement, whichever is first. Kara will assist in transitioning the new recruitment committee chairman. To learn more of the role and responsibilities for this position, view the job description. If you are interested in applying, please submit your application by Tuesday, Sept. 8. Questions about the role and responsibilities may be sent to Assistant Director of Collegiate Services Brittany Booth. Please share this opportunity with others who may be interested.
Announcing the 2019-2020 Scholarship & Grant Recipients
2 Comments
I don't know what went wrong with Kiera's link, but i have fixed it. Personally, I would love to have all emails and phone extensions listed for staff, but that is not my call. Because you are on the workforce you CAN access the Workforce Communication Guide which does have areas of responsibility and email addresses. It is in Igloo > Files > Resources > Volunteer Resources. It is not to be shared with non-workforce members. Thanks for telling me about Kiera's link.
Lorie