How sororities are operating with coronavirus this semester

By Tiye Bracy | Published by December 13, 2020

This semester Greek Life is operating differently than prior semesters. The Meet the Greeks this semester was virtual for the first time. Instead of seeing all the organizations at one time, students had to choose which google meet or zoom session they would join based on their interests. 

“Once we distributed bids, we conducted a completely virtual new member education period out of the safety of our New Member Education team and our new members,” President of Delta Phi Epsilon, Katie Lewandowski said.

All events that were once in person had to transition to virtual meetings.

“Delta Phi Epsilon has tried to hold true to in-person recruitment as possible, while making the necessary adjustments for being online,” Lewandowski said.

After the Meet the Greek event, each greek organization holds individual events for prospective new members. 

“We used being virtual to our advantage and made the most of our recruitment period; events like Meet the Sisters, where we get to mingle for the first time with potential new members, was transformed into a PowerPoint night where everyone presented a slide about themselves,” Lewandowski said.

Greek organizations were trying to navigate transitioning in person events to virtual meetings for new prospective members.

“We have heavily utilized Zoom’s Breakout Room feature, which helped make recruitment a bit more personal and comfortable for everyone,” Lewandowski said.

Greek Life is a big part of the college experience, for those that choose to be a part of an organization. Some of the things that greek organizations promote are leadership and interpersonal skills, community service work, and encouraging scholarship.

All prospective students that are interested in being affiliated with an organization are encouraged to first attend Meet the Greeks at the beginning of the semester. This grants students the opportunity to see a panel of sororities and fraternities. Ultimately, the purpose of attending that event is to see which organizations you want further information about. 

There are basic guidelines students must follow in order to join an greek organization. First, students must satisfy the academic requirements of at least a 2.6 gpa and have completed at least 12 credits at Kean University. For transfer students, they had to have completed at least 12 credits that were accepted by Kean.

Second, all prospective new students must attend an orientation meeting facilitated by the Center for Leadership and Service.

Third, all new students must fill out a New Member Contract and Registration form with the Center for Leadership and Service.

There is a New Member Education Program which includes activities and duties, dates of session and tests, and dates of chapter functions. All which each student is responsible for attending. 

Although the recruitment was done completely virtual, many people still participated in the process and were interested in joining a greek organization.

“We were so happy to welcome 12 new sisters home this semester!” Lewandowski said.

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