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Fraternity & Sorority Life Chapters: Compliance with COVID-19

January 22, 2021
FSL House Residents:
 
Welcome back for Winter term in campus housing, specifically to your fraternity, sorority, or scholarship houses. We are excited about the opportunity for each of you to experience living on campus and in your affinity spaces after a Fall Quarter in which the houses were closed.  
 
Over the last several days, there have been several reports to the Office of Community Standards (OSC) and our councils’ leadership regarding individuals and chapters' failure to comply with the University COVID-19 expectations. We want to remind everyone of our broader Northwestern University Community expectations. Please visit the FAQ page for more detailed examples and information. Also, please reference the recent communications on January 17, 2021 from Student Affairs, For Students: Remain Focused on Community Health.
 
We want to reiterate our commitment to maintaining a healthy and safe residential environment during this COVID-19 pandemic. We are asking for your continued partnership in remaining vigilant in upholding expectations of campus residents during these challenging times. As a reminder, pre-COVID guest policies have been suspended. Fraternities and Sororities are following Residential Services COVID-19 Guest Policy. Guests are defined as anyone not residing within the chapter facility, including non-resident members of the organization. The following expectations are in place regarding any guests visiting the facility:
  •  Overnight guests (from the hours of midnight to -8 a.m.) are strictly prohibited as part of students’ responsibility to support a healthy environment.
  •  Guests are permitted in common areas (Limit 10). Occupancy limits in a sleeping rooms must not exceed one visitor per resident.
  •  Guests who do not live on campus, but are affiliated with Northwestern, must complete a daily health attestation prior to visiting a building. 
  •  Guests who are not affiliated with Northwestern must follow the University’s visitor policies.
  •  Guests in common spaces must follow the enhanced safety protocols and remain in only the larger common areas of the facility.
Also, please note that Fraternity & Sorority Life (FSL) strongly advises chapters and councils to host all events virtually and make them accessible to all students, including those who can only participate remotely or prefer to do so. Because of recent events from the weekend, the Interfraternity Council (IFC) has decided to pause all in-person activities and group gatherings until further notice. FSL will continue to support IFC and other councils' measures of shared governance. 
 
We discourage in-person meetings and off-campus events during this time. If there is a need to host any gatherings at the facility and/or at third party vendors, please notify your chapter coach to ensure that the gathering is in compliance with current University expectations and public health guidelines. We also remind you of the Hybrid Events Registration Process that has been outlined for student groups who wish to host a virtual event with an in-person component in Norris University Center managed spaces.
 
Fraternity & Sorority Life is asking you all, as leaders in our on-campus community, to rise to the challenge to protect our campus community, specifically the most vulnerable among us, including essential and front-line staff who are serving in and around many of your chapter facilities. We hope that you will continue to be the leaders that your organizations have called on you to be and place health and safety as a priority for yourself and those around you on campus.
 
 
Sincerely,
 
Travis L. Martin, Ph.D.
Director of Fraternity & Sorority Life