From community service to frat parties, Greek life is considered the pinnacle of college life. But with Cabrini adjusting to a new way of the college experience due to COVID, how will that impact the only sorority on campus, Delta Xi Phi?
Delta Xi Phi is a national multicultural sorority dedicated to upholding its five pillars: Friendship, sisterhood, community service, the advancement of women through higher education and multicultural awareness. Like with everything else on campus, Delta Xi Phi has had to adjust to new circumstances under COVID.
Starting off, for those who do not know, rushing is a process in which undergraduate women and men join a sorority or fraternity. This process usually involves many fun planned events and activities. Interested, potential new members learn about each sorority/fraternity and get to know other members. However, due to social distancing guidelines, recruitment processes had to adjust. Because of this, the members of Delta Xi Phi have decided that there will be no fall rushing this year.
“We actually decided amongst our chapter that we were not going to do fall recruitment,” Alexis Sharp, early childhood PreK-4/special education major and current president of Delta Xi Phi Chi chapter, said.
Despite having no fall recruitment this semester, the sorority does have plans moving forward to get things back into shape.
“The plan moving forward is that we are going to do a spring recruitment…majority of the recruitment will be online,” Sharp said.
What makes Delta Xi Phi’s Chi chapter unique from other typical sororities is that there is no active Greek house on campus, so living arrangements among sisters is not a worry. However, there has been a slight decrease in the women in the associate member (AM) process.
Starting around January to February, the sorority held a spring recruitment, involving them in certain activities as part of the recruitment process. However, once COVID started, the entire process was moved online, allowing the associate members to decide if they wanted to continue the process or wait until things got back to normal on campus.
“The girls decided that they wanted to continue their process through virtually,” Sharp said.
Despite having to abruptly change their whole process of recruitment and Greek life to an online format, the members of the Chi associate chapter of Delta Xi Phi are continuing to uphold the sorority’s five pillars and maintain its ultimate goal.
“At the end of the day, everything goes back to standing upon our five pillars. I’d definitely say our goal is to do a lot more fundraising events,” Sharp said.
Courtesy of https://gobama.ua.edu/visits/
It’s not just Cabrini University that has had to change the way its Greek organizations operate. According to the Alabama Local News, the University of Alabama and Auburn University’s fall rushing will be held completely online. Back in July of this year, the Alabama Panhellenic Association announced, “bids will be distributed via email to new members.”
Courtesy of https://www.deltazeta.org/
Drexel University’s Delta Zeta sorority has also switched to virtual. “Greek life has changed as a whole because there is little to no interaction with the sisters. I often forget I’m even in a sorority,” Kaitlyn Malloy, pre junior finance major and member of Delta Zeta, said.
Even though many universities have been taking safety measures, it’s clear that virtual Greek life is nowhere near the same as Greek life being able to actually thrive on campus and in-person.
“The number of attendees has decreased significantly,” Malloy said, regarding the number of attendees. “But we hope to see more interaction and involvement.”
It appears that some Greek organizations have experienced a trend with a decrease in attendees since the outbreak started.
Despite safety precautions being taken, as probably already assumed, there are a few sororities and fraternities out there that have chosen to prioritize rush week events and partying over safety.
According to a U.S News article, “more than 160 students tested positive for COVID back in June.” These cases were reportedly caused by rush parties taking place, despite a ban on in-person recruiting.
According to an article from The Daily, the number of positive COVID cases linked to fraternities reached 151 back in July of this year. The 151 students tested positive were from 15 separate fraternity houses.
As this year nears its second month in a new semester, only time will tell if Greek life will be able to adjust fully to new conditions under COVID.
Not many women know that there is a sorority on campus, so for anyone interested, follow them @deltaxiphi_chi on Instagram and take a minute to visit their website for more information on their sorority.
