It didn't take extensive education in epidemiology for me to know that the idea of Greek life coexisting with a pandemic would require an extreme change in order for it to work, assuming the goal is not herd immunity. I talked with a friend of mine, who goes to Ohio State as well, who was sent home in September after an there was an outbreak of coronavirus in her sorority house.
She went home as an outbreak began, and to her knowledge, she did not have the virus, however, she had come in contact with people in her house who ended up testing positive.
Why did you choose to go home? What were your other options?
Her reply was frank, she seemed almost annoyed. "We were told to go home, pretty much. I chose to leave because if I got really sick, I didn't want to be stuck in my room with no one to care for me… The way things were being handled wasn't that great and I didn't want to be here and be in a negative space."
Let me be clear, I don't expect sororities and fraternities to convert into healthcare facilities in these unprecedented times. I hardly expected them to take the measures necessary to keep the people in fraternity and sorority houses safe. Even if they did, expecting a bunch of college kids to abstain from partying and going to bars is unreasonable. However, I think that measures could've been taken to prevent instances like these. For example, my friend lives in a tight room with 2 other girls. In the house, there are around 60 people in total. Because of the virus people have moved out, contracts aside. In any case, being surrounded by 60 other people on a daily basis would be a nightmare for contact tracing. Even if you take social distancing seriously and respect the guidelines, you could do anything and everything to protect yourself and that would never be enough unless you wanted to sacrifice the experience that Greek life is notorious for.
I like to think I was taking a risk in living on-campus amidst a pandemic. I have one lab every three weeks in person and half of a recitation but going off of how much I'm getting from life on campus (both academic and social life), staying off-campus or at home doesn't seem like much better. At least here I can limit my distractions so I can get work done.
Now and in the distant future, how do you think getting coronavirus has affected you?
"I feel like it's made me not as excited to be here, and I just really don't feel like I was cared for by the house I was living in. That really discouraged me from even wanting to come back… and I was having second thoughts. You want to feel cared for where you're living and [you want to feel like] your health is important, not just your money."
That seems to be a common theme in this pandemic. You see the jokes that school should've just been canceled for a year, but all in all, doing so would not be the end of the world. I think at least going 100% online would prevent needless spending on testing, contact tracing, medical bills, and other expenses that universities are paying to keep students on campus. I can't begin to imagine what the financial toll of all universities going complete online would be, but, in a time like this, you'd think we'd be able to make some of these tough decisions. Who knows what winter will bring with both the flu and the coronavirus, especially as positive cases on Ohio State's campus are dropping. What can we expect?
I started this by saying it didn't take knowledge in the science of disease to realize Greek life wouldn't work out so well during a pandemic, and I'll end it by saying it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize the decisions made for this autumn semester across the United States have been made in money's best interest as opposed to students.
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