Parties And Greek Life Events Prohibited In Brownstones For Fall 2021

Upper West Side NY

07 September, 2021

11:37 AM

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Columbia Daily Spectator BY STELLA PAGKAS SEPTEMBER 6, 2021 Hosting events in Columbia-owned brownstones during the fall semester will be prohibited in an effort to prevent a COVID-19 outbreak. Events include parties and programming for philanthropy and recruitment. Associate Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life Yvonne Pitts emailed the announcement to brownstone residents and RAs on Thursday. "There is no way to regulate or monitor capacity and/or visitor restrictions set by the University," Pitts wrote in the announcement. "For the safety of the Columbia community, as well as the greater Morningside Heights community, it is imperative that we take the necessary precautions to prevent an outbreak." The restrictions will primarily impact Greek life organizations, which inhabit many of Columbia's brownstones, as well as several Special Interest Communities, such as Application Development Initiative and Muse House. The announcement has heightened an already-present divide on campus between students wary of COVID-19 transmission and students desperate to return to normal college life. For some, this rule is a welcome safety precaution. "I think it's a good call, because I think safety comes first," one member of a Columbia fraternity said. "We shouldn't [host events] until the COVID situation is easing up." A student involved with a Columbia sorority agreed that the restrictions are a "good idea" because "with the Delta variant, people are still getting sick." Even so, some members view the new restrictions as a specific attack on fraternity and sorority life. "A full-on ban probably doesn't make too much sense, but they should definitely do restricted capacity of some sort," a Columbia fraternity member said. "It seems a little bit targeted to the fraternities, in my opinion, and given that academic events can be held in a limited capacity, I think social ones should be, too." The email to fraternity and sorority brownstone residents asserted that reports of a party or event hosted in a brownstone would result in the fraternity or sorority chapter going to the Greek Judicial Board for an alleged policy violation. Furthermore, individual students involved in such events would go through the dean's discipline process. In order to enforce these regulations, resident advisors who are members of the sorority or fraternity will conduct rounds in the common areas of the University-owned brownstones each night. However, many students doubt that these rules can be truly enforced, particularly because members of the fraternities and sororities serve as RAs within their own brownstones. "Personally, I doubt anyone is going to follow [the rules] because people pay for Greek life to be able to participate in events, and I'm not entirely sure how [the University] would regulate it," Jaden Hill, CC '24, who is not a member of a Greek life organization, said. Last spring, in-person events were similarly restricted to prevent the spread of COVID-19 on campus, but the rules were often ignored, both in the Columbia-owned brownstones and in campus housing. "They were [having parties]. Everyone knows that," a member of a Columbia fraternity said, "There wasn't really anything COVID-safe going on." Furthermore, some students feel that prohibiting parties at brownstones will just encourage students to host illicit events elsewhere. Pitts encouraged chapters to reserve spaces on campus through University Events Management if they want to host in-person or hybrid events. "I don't think people will follow [the rules]," Madison De Leon, CC '24, said. "If parties won't be allowed in the brownstones, students here will definitely find other loopholes to throw parties at other places." The University is leaving open the possibility for brownstones to host events with limited capacity during the spring semester, depending on the status of the pandemic. Staff writer Stella Pagkas can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @stellapagkas. Founded in 1877, the Columbia Daily Spectator is the independent undergraduate newspaper of Columbia University, serving thousands of readers in Morningside Heights, West Harlem, and beyond. Read more at columbiaspectator.com and donate here.