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.