Greek Life prepares for fall recruitment. Photo by Siobhan Richards.
Greek Life at the University of Rhode Island transformed its typical new-member recruitment process this semester as COVID-19 continues to affect the community.
Chapter houses must now oblige to guidelines set forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) in order to continue the tradition of fall rush and recruitment. The most drastic of these regulations has resulted in the shift of nearly all in-person events to a virtual platform.
URI’s Interfraternity Council President Sean Miller emphasized that so far, these virtual events have been a huge success.
“It’s almost identical to the usual recruitment, minus it of course being online,” Miller said.
The extended planning period this past summer was crucial for the recruitment team to make accommodations ahead of time, according to Miller. He has seen very few issues organizing this recruitment thus far, despite the current circumstances.
Additionally, Miller said that the number of potential new members does not appear to have been impacted by the pandemic.
“We’ve still seen a great response from the freshmen and everyone on campus,” Miller said. “It still seems like a lot of people are trying to be involved in Greek Life.”
Miller encouraged students to rush, even with the strange circumstances, as chapters anticipate some sense of normalcy once a vaccine for COVID-19 is widely available.
The Kappa Delta sorority Service Chair Melina Demarco believes that creating unique connections with rush participants will be complicated, as recruitment this year will be conducted completely online.
“There is a technology piece that we’re dealing with this year that is very inconvenient and almost impersonal in a way,” Demarco said.
The pandemic has left members like Demarco in the dark as to what the future of Greek Life will look like. She expressed that many decisions are still up in the air, and that although students long for in-person recruitment, the situation is difficult and understandable.
Maddy Love, vice president of membership at the Sigma Kappa sorority, believes that the virtual format has taken some of the exhilaration out of recruitment.
“This experience gives potential new members a great one-on-one conversation with members of each chapter where they can really have genuine conversations that they might not have gotten in previous years,” Love said.
Despite these changes, freshman Jared Hewitt remains optimistic about this year’s recruitment experience.
“It bums me out a little bit to hear that I’m not getting the same experience,” Hewitt said, “but at the end of the day, we’re working with what we’ve got.”
Hewitt attended virtual “Freek Day” and is looking forward to the upcoming Greek Life events, whether it be online or in-person.
Rush participants are still waiting for information on their recruitment schedules as the virtual events inch closer by the day.
“They’ve given us the days that we’ll rush, but not the times yet,” said Tori Frank, a rushing freshman who remains eager, despite some confusion. “Things are hard for everyone, and I’m still excited for everything.”
Stephen Simo, assistant dean of students, said that Greek Life must now prioritize the health and safety of URI first and foremost. He said that the community will persevere as a possible vaccine is on the horizon and the University will continue to demonstrate resilience as they move forward virtually.
Greek Life events will be held mainly online for the foreseeable future, according to Assistant Director of Greek Affairs Alison Burke. Specifically, Burke shared that Bid Day will be uniformly virtual. Prospective students will receive a bid email from their respective chapter and will later meet their brothers or sisters via Zoom.
Burke believes that there are lessons to take away from this year’s fall recruitment.
“We always look forward to some of our traditions that we have, but sometimes change is OK and we can build new ideas and events out of this,” Burke said. “I would say even though we’re hosting recruitment on a virtual platform, it doesn’t mean that your sisterhood or brotherhood is going to be any different.”
The communal atmosphere will continue throughout this year’s fall recruitment; positivity, flexibility and patience will pave the way for a successful recruitment process, according to Burke.