Without a doubt, Greek life is known to provide a social environment for university students across the nation. College students join sororities and fraternities to make new, lifelong friendships through philanthropy, sports, and other social activities and events. But what happens when the social aspect is removed from Greek life, due to, lets just say, a nationwide pandemic?
Several Greek life members from Bradley University, the students reveal how COVID19 has impacted their sorority or fraternity, as well as their opinions on these changes. To learn more about Bradley’s Greek Life, check out the website here, (https://www.bradley.edu/campuslife/fsl/). To learn more about the state of Illinois’s guidelines for COVID19, check out the following link, (https://coronavirus.illinois.gov/s/).
Bradley’s former Sigma Nu President, Brian Leonard, stated, “COVID definitely limits what we can do in our fraternity, a lot of things have changed since my freshman year that is for sure.”
Leonard said that the pandemic has limited a lot of what Sigma Nu can do as far as social events, such as date parties and exchanges. The Bradley student said, “Unfortunately, right now we are extremely restricted,” he continued, “We have not been able to hold or participate in any registered exchanges or date parties, however, we have been able to start holding chapter in person again, which has allowed for a small sense of normalcy.”
Una Coralic, another Bradley student, as well as a member of Pi Beta Phi, said that her sorority has also been unable to participate in many social events that were typically held prior to COVID.
Coralic said, “Though we cannot have exchanges, we are still able to hold some in-person events, as long as we make sure to social distance and wear masks,” Coralic added, “We require our members to sign up for time slots to limit the number of people at an event at one time.”
To view some of the events still able to be held by Bradley’s Greek Life, check out the following links, (https://instagram.com/bradleypiphi?igshid=170dtnmsh34ik), (https://instagram.com/bradleysigmachi?igshid=ed0sfjvdqfoe), (https://instagram.com/sigmanubradley?igshid=1hb43fh0p5dvp).
The students went on to explain in the interview that a large component of Greek Life is philanthropy. Austin Moca, a junior Sigma Chi member at Bradley University said, “Believe it or not, a lot of us actually really enjoyed our philanthropy events, but it has been so hard to do any sort of volunteer work recently because so many places have such strict guidelines.”
Despite these guidelines, Leonard said, “We still try to participate in philanthropy in any way we can, we just are not able to do so in the same way of which we have in the past.”
The three students interviewed each live in-house at their fraternity or sorority house on campus. When asked about what measures are being taken to keep the residents of the houses safe and healthy, the students responded that the biggest rule is to wear masks in all common areas or when they are simply unable to socially distance themselves.
Coralic said, “We have even implemented COVID chores, so everyone has a cleaning chore to ensure we are disinfecting as much as possible.”
Leonard and Moca said their chapters also assigned chores to their residents in hopes of keeping everyone safe and healthy. These chores include simply disinfecting surface areas, and keeping the restrooms as clean as possible.
In the interview Coralic said, “We also are not allowed visitors unless they sign up for a time slot, wear a mask, and remain in a common area.”
Bradley Greek Life is really taking the proper steps to keep everyone safe as best they can amidst the pandemic. In return, the students are working quite hard in following these rules and guidelines in hopes of being able to return to normalcy soon.
When asked if the pandemic had changed the way he felt about being a member of Greek Life, Moca said, “It definitely has, because I pay a lot of money to be involved, and be a part of all of the events that happened pre-COVID, but now I am paying the same amount of money and getting jipped out of those events.”
Despite the slight change in feelings for the chapter itself, the students reveal that their relationship with their brothers and sisters have not suffered. The pandemic has brought about a lot of changes for Bradley University Greek Life members, but they are all doing their best to abide by the guidelines and overcome this obstacle together.
Check out the website below to learn more information regarding the changes COVID19 has brought upon Bradley University’s Greek Life. (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gXHTs5zLFdOv9Pr-jThn1BsO2x1KPRX1/view)
Click the link below to view a video slideshow of specific example of events that Bradley Greek Life is still able to participate in despite COVID regulations.