COVID-19 has made this semester a very difficult one. Our chapter and university had to go through great measures of adapting to these harsh times to make the best of our situation. We were able to go through the entire semester on campus, with some classes ending on Thanksgiving break or going online after a certain point in time. All in person classes consisted of social distancing and wearing masks, while the UNK dining areas were heavily regulated as well. Dining personnel would fill up plates upon a student’s request while there was limited seating and to go methods of dining. We did our best to ensure brotherhood activities within the given safety guidelines. For most of the semester, anyone not living in the SigEp house was not allowed inside and did not have access to entry. This created a challenge as off campus brothers could not come to the house and hang out with their on-campus brothers. This also meant that the SigEp chapter room could not be used for meetings. Our chapter was lucky enough to reserve Copeland 142, the biggest lecture hall at UNK, to host weekly meetings consisting of social distancing with masks. This was extremely beneficial on being able to keep everyone on the same page, holding each other accountable to attendance, but most of all being able to see each other at least every week. Some of the meetings did occur on zoom depending on our situation. Functions and formals were cancelled. Most mixers with other Greek organizations were cancelled. Many of our new member programming was not able to be done this semester. Most intramural sports were cancelled. In terms of organized events, we prioritized our brotherhood experiences on Bible studies and faculty fellow zoom presentations. With many of our friends and family receiving COVID, sticking together through these times was crucial for our brothers’ mental health. Our chapter is hoping that many of the events we missed out on this semester will be able to be done in a safe manner next semester. We also hope that next semester gradually progresses towards how things were before the pandemic.

            As for recruitment this summer, no recruitment events were allowed to be held and all recruiting was done virtually through zooms and messaging. Potential new members that made up their minds on signing would join a scheduled zoom with the IFC VP of Recruitment and virtually sign their bid card. This provided a challenge as many PNM’s wanted to meet our brothers in person, but unfortunately it could not be done. We hosted a group zoom meeting for PNM’s so they could meet a lot of our guys and chat. From the circumstances we were given, we still recruited a high-quality class of 22 guys this summer, more than any other fraternity.

            Philanthropy this year was one of our biggest challenges. Destination downtown was cancelled, so we were not able to sell shirts or organize our annual concert with Lemon Fresh Day. Instead, we created a 2021 SigEp calendar and sold it to students at UNK. For our Muscular Dystrophy Association event, the SigEp Skate-a-thon event was not approved by the committee due to COVID risk. Alternatively, our MDA philanthropy was done through a week-long social media campaign, providing facts about muscular dystrophy and raising awareness in the form of social media posts. We also linked a Crowdchange for donations to raise money for muscular dystrophy.