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Instead of walking from one fraternity or sorority house to another during the recruitment process this semester, potential new members have clicked from Zoom link to Zoom link.

Last semester, fraternities and sororities at Syracuse University had to adapt to COVID-19 restrictions, including restrictions on gatherings and events at chapter houses. And the same applies to the spring semester, where registered social events at chapter houses continue to be prohibited.

Many SU Greek life organizations dedicate the first few weeks of each spring semester to recruitment, a process of selecting new members that involves several days of events and activities.

Some organizations held virtual recruitment this past fall, while others hosted activities virtually for the first time this semester. While the recruitment timeline varies by council, the process is now entirely virtual, said Pam Peter, assistant dean for fraternity and sorority affairs, in a statement to The Daily Orange.

For many Greek organizations, virtual recruitment entails Zoom Q&A panels, breakout rooms and online games. The Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Council concluded recruitment on Sunday, while other organizations are currently hosting events or will do so in the coming weeks.

Virtual recruitment for IFC mirrors the format of in-person recruitment, said Jack Rubin, the director of public relations for IFC. Potential new members attended a virtual kickoff event on Feb. 12 before participating in mandatory and open rounds. For the open rounds, participants had a panel of Zoom links they could use to connect with members of each house.

Being able to host recruitment means a lot to Greek organizations, Rubin said. IFC traditionally holds recruitment during both the fall and spring semester but canceled its formal process last semester because of COVID-19.

“If Greek houses miss out on taking new members for a full calendar year, then that’ll really decimate the brotherhoods and sisterhoods on campus,” Rubin said. “So the fact that it’s able to happen is just a really big deal because obviously there’s hundreds of years of traditions that we want to keep going.”

Several students participating in the IFC and Panhel recruitment processes shared their expectations going into the process with The D.O.

Kaden Warner, a freshman in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, said that the IFC shared recruitment plans on social media and tried to make the process “as normal as it could possibly be.”

For Jack Cote, who is also a freshman in Whitman, virtual recruitment brings responsibilities that differ from the past. Instead of walking to fraternity houses with their Rho Chis, or group leaders, potential new members log onto their computers at a specified time and jump from Zoom to Zoom. Cote said the virtual process seems less casual than the previous format.

“The hardest part that me and my friends have noticed with Zoom is that presenting yourself is a lot harder to do,” Cote said. “It’s kind of like you’re on the clock, and the spotlight’s on you. It’s not as casual as just meeting a new person in real life.”

Advantages of the virtual process included not having to run from house to house in the cold and being able to wear sweatpants instead of choosing a full outfit, said Mikayla Voorn, a freshman studying biotechnology. But it was more difficult to get a feel for each of the chapters, she said.

Melanie Wilder, a freshman in the School of Information Studies, felt nervous for virtual Panhel recruitment at first because she knew that this semester it would look different from what her mother and friends told her it would be like.

“But as soon as I went to kickoff, I just got immediately so excited for it,” Wilder said. “I saw all the sororities, I saw everyone just like dancing, having fun; the music was on. It was just incredible.”

Some Greek organizations held recruitment in a hybrid or virtual format last semester, while others are hosting virtual recruitment events for the first time this semester.

The Interfraternity Council concluded recruitment on Sunday. Courtesy of Jack Rubin

While planning virtual recruitment in the fall semester for the co-ed business fraternity Delta Sigma Pi, senior vice president Sal Pepe watched YouTube videos and tried to learn as much as he could about the Zoom platform and its features. He texted in his group chat to see if anyone was available to hop on a Zoom call to play around with the features.

“I think it was really fun just to see how brothers responded to the new situation and just took it in stride being that like, it’s not the ideal scenario, but they were still willing to like put on a smile and just go and make the best of the situation,” Pepe said.

Ryan Spivey, the president of SU’s chapter of the pre-law fraternity Phi Alpha Delta, said that the organization is learning to make the most of the difficult situation caused by the pandemic and is aiming to find a balance between focusing on recruitment and helping current members feel more acclimated.

Seeing how members have continued to adapt and support each other has been “one of the most heartening things” in Phi Alpha Delta deputy director Emily Baranoski’s nearly eight years of working with the organization, she said.

SU’s chapter of the medical fraternity Phi Delta Epsilon has learned from navigating COVID-19 during the fall semester that members were able to retain a sense of community, even without the ability to gather in person, said chapter president Matthew Sala.

“My biggest takeaway personally was that even despite the fact that we haven’t seen each other or been in the same room during the entire semester, the sense of brotherhood during the entire semester hasn’t changed to me,” Sala said. “We were able to maintain the same level of personal connection despite the lack of tangible personal connection that we were able to have in person.”

In planning and hosting virtual recruitment, fraternities and sororities have also faced challenges such as dealing with Zoom fatigue and finding a way to develop new relationships over a computer screen.

Students who take many classes online may also experience Zoom fatigue when presented with additional virtual events on top of classes, said Glory Chung, senior recruitment and fundraising chair of alpha Kappa Delta Phi.

“After a whole day of classes, either online or hybrid, and you have to go to another event on Zoom, it gets really tiring and some people just don’t want to do that,” Chung said. “So I think that relates to being burnt out and just being really tired from being on the computer all the time.”

The National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations, one of the Greek councils at SU, has a different recruitment process than other councils, said José Arrieta, the president of NALFO. During the pandemic, the organizations have had to use trial and error to adapt and maintain “the authenticity of the experience and of the memories without being in person,” he said.

Jason Nova, the acting executive director for the Phi Iota Alpha fraternity, said that Greek organizations are still trying to figure out how to translate the experiences of rituals and ceremonies of Greek life into a virtual format.

For many Greek organizations, virtual recruitment entails Zoom Q&A panels, breakout rooms and online games. Screenshot

Nova worked as a program coordinator in the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs from 2015 through 2018. He said he understands the work that goes into supporting Greek organizations and has witnessed collaboration among different chapters during the pandemic.

“I think it’s all of us putting a hand in the lifting of this ginormous bucket that is fraternity/sorority life,” Nova said. “And the world that we’re in is forcing us to find innovative ways to get together to strategize and prosper.”

Finding people that others can relate to and creating a sense of family is a major aspect of Greek life, and Greek life won’t look the same with the virtual format, Arrieta said. Even so, he has hope that the current situation will not be here to stay and “we’ll see a new normal that’s not this one.”

But in the meantime, he thinks that this semester will allow for growth and change as people have become more accustomed and creative on the Zoom platform.

“Virtual definitely does take away from that personal face-to-face experience, but at the end of the day, it’s more than that,” Arrieta said. “The traditions and the values of each organization should be able to shine through, despite if it’s through a computer screen or not.”

Published on February 22, 2021 at 10:08 pm

Contact Mandy: ackrayna@syr.edu | @MandyKraynak