“I’m very disappointed,” Chancellor Woodson said during his ironic in-person press conference Thursday, Aug. 20. In his email notification addressed to the school community, he noted that Greek life was the source of significant infections and added that “the actions of a few are jeopardizing the health and safety of the larger community.” And honestly I am disappointed too, but for a different reason. I’m disappointed that Chancellor Woodson and the NC State administration is using Greek life as a scapegoat for the inevitable failure of a campus reopening.
First, a big asterisk: I am not saying Greek life hasn’t been an issue. Across the board, Greek life has a lot of problems at both the surface level here at NC State, as well as inherently in the foundation of institutions that are built on systemic racism, classism, sexism and heterosexism. Moreover, the actions by some fraternities and sororities as a whole have been reckless and dangerous with repercussions for the entire community, specifically hosting mass gatherings. Even if a fraternity or sorority didn’t host an event, large numbers of individuals across the Greek life community have attended.
So, when you look at the clusters and notice that the majority have been within Greek life houses, it is easy to draw a simple connection that it’s because of their “partying.” However, it is an unfair and incorrect comparison between Greek life and on-campus residence halls, given that Greek housing is much more communal in nature compared to the more easily isolated dorms and apartments, as Shelly Brown Dobek, director of Fraternity and Sorority Life, explained during the Student Senate meeting held on Aug. 20. For example, meals in a Greek house are eaten communally compared to dorms, which are at dining halls separate from the living situation.
In this light, looking at the context and physical aspects of Greek housing, Brown Dobek’s comments still stand. Could the fast spread intra-fraternity or intra-sorority have been prevented? In my opinion, no. When one brother sneezes, the whole fraternity catches a cold.
The narrative has become that non-Greek life students are “less irresponsible” than their Greek counterparts, but the “not as bad as” mentality just redirects blame and does not recognize risky actions done by the general student body and more importantly, university administration. Residence halls have been held up as proof that partying is what spread COVID-19, rather than simply being in close proximity to hundreds of other students with inadequate safety measures. It has come to light that multiple clusters have emerged in both student housing and other NC State communities, specifically athletics. Greek life was faster because of the communal nature, but the same result in six residence halls — Owen, Bragaw, Lee, Bowen, Metcalf and Carroll — and the mandatory move out shows the real problem: reopening student housing as a whole.
The narrative should be one of support, of unity. The shutdown of our school was inevitable; however, various groups of students on and off campus, not exclusively Greek life, expedited the process. We are seeing clusters arise no matter the campus composition, as other schools like Notre Dame, a school with no Greek life, are experiencing a similar growth in clusters and positive cases like us. No one group is the reason why our school shut down.
The administration wants to blame Greek life for the clusters of COVID-19 at NC State, when it was their decision to allow Greek Village housing and operations to begin in the first place. Other institutions have employed COVID-19 precautions, such as testing students before they even arrived on campus, as well as having more available testing for students, but NC State took no such precautions.
A colleague of mine recently wrote a column asking for Greek life to apologize for spreading COVID-19. In her column, she wrote that she doesn’t believe the spread was solely students’ fault, but that students’ actions played a role. I agree with her; however, I specifically believe that this was an inevitable consequence of bringing 30,000 people from around the country and world back to a single campus, and students’ reckless behaviors simply catalyzed the spread of COVID-19. Further, looking for an apology is as self-righteous as it is unhelpful; especially when the real problem was the administration’s decision to open campus and the close residential living situations on and nearby campus.
Should Greek life be NC State’s scapegoat? No. Is there some more accountability we can ask from the Greek life community? Absolutely, across the board and in so many ways. If there is an apology we should be expecting, it needs to be from administration, who brought us all to campus knowing full well that COVID-19 would spread rapidly, classes would go online almost immediately and on-campus housing would crumble.
