By Jhoana T. Merino-Martinez
News Editor
In a special edition of our Roundtable series, The Equinox discussed campus life in the fall with student leaders on July 9.
Juan-Lorenzo Martinez, the president of the InterGreek Council, and Kalyssa Nufable, Barkada club’s upcoming president, answered important questions regarding the future of their organizations.
President Christopher Capuano briefly addressed this topic in the email update on July 7. He mentioned that while provisions are being made, if the pandemic exacerbates then a “suspension of in-person campus events and activities” can be put in order.
A burning question Greek Life members have is whether organization standards will adapt for this case scenario. This is founded by the cancellation of popular events like Greek Week and New Member Processes in the spring due to FDU’s shift to virtual instruction.
Martinez acknowledged that many things were “cut short” in the spring. For the fall, he stated that Greek Life should definitely look into online alternatives.
“It’s a new journey for all of us, I would definitely encourage every organization to have virtual recruiting events to keep the students engaged,” Martinez said.
Martinez also added that planning is “in the works” for online events in greek life.
FDU Barkada is a social group for Filipino students who has hosted various events and presentations on campus, so the matter of keeping students engaged online is one that was brought up.
Kalyssa Nufable is confident that converting their theme to virtual will not be an issue, especially since Barkada hosted virtual events for the remainder of the spring semester.
“In terms of integrating… I don’t think that it will be hard. It will be different for sure, but I think it’s achievable,” Nufable said.
Nufable confirmed that Barkada has a “rough outline” of events for the fall planned out. Taking the organization’s experience from the spring, Nufable said that the eboard is working to put themselves in “their members shoes” to make their future events more interactive and fun.
“We’ll have to be creative again. I know for me it’s hard to stay engaged when you’re talking to your laptop, kind of awkward in your room,” she said.
Martinez and Nufable agree that the uncertainty of the situation requires more planning than an average semester, and so there may not be many definitive answers at this time. However, priorities of each respective organization will be key in the process.
“It’s not about bringing in people just to bring in people,” Martinez said. “It’s about getting to know these new people and we can easily achieve that virtually.”
“Our health and safety is the most important thing, so if we keep that as a priority, everything else will kind of fall into place,” Nufable said.
“We have to be adaptive because things are changing all the time.”
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Art by Amaya Morales
