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Syracuse University’s Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs has made several changes to the rest of its spring 2024 recruitment process after reports of influenza cases among chapter members on campus.

Sorority members will be required to wear masks for this weekend’s round of recruitment due to the outbreak, CitrusTV first confirmed after FASA and the SU Panhellenic Council held a 5:15 p.m. Zoom meeting. The SU chapter of Delta Phi Epsilon confirmed the report in an Instagram story posted shortly after, saying in-person recruitment was to continue “even with masks.”

Fraternities will postpone their recruitment schedule by one day, according to an updated schedule posted to the SU Interfraternity Council Instagram account.

The announcement follows two prior adjustments announced on Thursday to the recruitment schedule: the first mandating sororities host their second weekend of recruitment virtually and the second postponing all sorority recruitment events by two weeks.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Weekly United States Influenza Surveillance Report — last updated on Jan. 26 — indicated an “elevated” amount of seasonal flu activity nationally in the weeks leading up to sorority recruitment kickoff on Jan. 25.

The CDC also reported 14.2% of flu tests administered nationally came back positive during the third week of January, a slight increase from the first two weeks of the month. However, in Onondaga County, the number of flu cases decreased by around 31% during that week, according to the New York State Department of Health’s county-by-county Flu Tracker.

SU’s FASA had initially confirmed in an email obtained by CitrusTV that it had planned to hold the final rounds of Panhel sorority recruitment virtually due to “rising reports” of students testing positive for the flu following the first weekend of recruitment. The original email did not mention any changes to IFC recruitment.

About two hours later, Delta Gamma wrote in a now-deleted Instagram story that sorority recruitment was to be postponed by two weeks.

After the initial reports regarding a virtual recruitment model were made public, a change.org petition was posted by user Kelsey Riley, a sophomore member of SU’s chapter of Alpha Chi Omega, requesting the university reverse the decision and move forward with recruitment as planned with the “appropriate safety measures in place.” As of 7:10 p.m. on Feb. 1, the petition has reached over 2,500 signatures.

“By limiting sorority recruitment to virtual platforms, female students are being denied the chance to fully participate in this important aspect of campus life,” the petition reads.

The petition claims the original decision “(perpetuated) gender-based disparities within our campus community,” citing the fact that FASA did not mention any changes to the fraternity recruitment process. When the petition was first published, only sorority recruitment was to be conducted virtually.

“We urge the administration to reconsider its decision and take proactive steps to ensure that sorority recruitment is conducted in a manner that is fair, equitable, and inclusive for all students,” the petition reads.

Following the decision, multiple sororities reached out to their members informing them of the changes, but almost four hours after the first reports of the new health and safety measures, SU’s FASA and Panhel instead decided to enforce a mask mandate.

SU’s Panhel and FASA decided to implement a mask mandate at 5:15 p.m., over four hours after news first broke of any changes being made to the process. IFC published its final decision to postpone recruitment by one day at around 5:45 p.m.

As of 7:10 p.m., SU’s Panhel, IFC, FASA and the Barnes Center at The Arch did not respond to The Daily Orange’s request for comment regarding the changes to recruitment.

Published on February 1, 2024 at 7:10 pm

Contact Julia: jmboehni@syr.edu