On March 5, the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life sent students involved in Greek life an email warning them to be safe this weekend and threatened to postpone rush for the second time this semester, which is scheduled to begin March 18.

Sarah Hernandez, Assistant Director for Fraternity and Sorority Life, signed the email that outlined the severity of the decisions that students will make this weekend. 

“If we receive reports of even just one of our fraternities or sororities violating health and safety guidelines or our Social Moratorium, we will not move forward with Recruitment this semester and will wait until the Fall 2021 semester to run a recruitment process,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez clarified that violations included a range of events.

“It is very important that we receive no reports of off campus social gatherings relating to our chapters,” Hernandez said. “This includes gatherings at apartment complexes or off campus houses.”

In a conversation with Bernie Scianna, O.S.A., Ph.D, director of Fraternity and Sorority Life, he broke down the intentions of the email. 

“An email was sent out to all Fraternity and Sorority members, and it will go out today to all Potential New Members, to say that if you are in violation of any health and safety protocols right now, then you will not be taking part in recruitment,” Scianna said. 

He added that this all relied on student behavior. 

“Before, during and after recruitment, we need to see proper behavior and adherence to the health and safety protocols,” Scianna said. “Going forward is an if. That’s a big word, if, I would say. If there are no surges of cases, if there are no violations of the Social Moratorium put out, recruitment will go on as scheduled.”

Nevertheless, Scianna was hopeful in Greek life’s ability to follow restrictions. 

“The numbers have been low the last couple of weeks because of a lot of work,” he said. “The plan is to go forward with virtual recruitment, with some tightening up even from the last recruitment plan in February. We are hoping that the fraternity and sorority community, which have said to us that they really want recruitment to go ahead, we are hoping that they live up to that expectation. We have faith in the community to rise up to this challenge.”

Sorority and fraternity leaders have called on members to take this message seriously.

Julia Longo, Kappa Kappa Gamma VP of Standards, commented on the situation.

“I think it’s important to remember that we are all in this together and must do our part in supporting one another and the community,” Longo said.

Greek Life rush remains scheduled for March 18-28, with decisions released on March 29, barring that no violations occur prior to these dates.