Sophia Gonzalez
The future of on-campus events relies on students and organizations following COVID-19 procedural guidelines set by the Center of Student Involvement (CSI).
“The College will continue its fall policies regarding on-campus events,” FSC said in an email sent out to students before the start of the spring semester.
This means that the school will be moving through phases to provide clubs and organizations with proper procedures to follow when hosting activities. These procedures will be in accordance with the most current information from the CDC and the Polk County Department of Health.
“Student clubs and organizations are permitted to host in-person events as long as they follow the event guidelines that CSI has in place for the spring semester,” Director of Student Involvement Jacqueline Inskeep said.
In order to follow proper safety procedures on-campus organizations have had to take extra precautions. Students must wear masks at all times and maintain social distancing.
Winter Wonderland was a bigger event, so they spread it out throughout campus and ensured that the ice rink and other equipment were properly sanitized, according to Inskeep.
Sophie Talbert is Alpha Chi Omega’s Vice President of New Member Education and was involved in sorority bid day preparations.
“We ensured that that there were no more than 25 people gathered at any point during the day and that masks were worn at all times, even in photos,” Talbert said.
For bigger events, this can be more difficult but Inskeep says that if any on-campus organizations need creative ways to plan a safe event, that they should reach out to CSI.
On-campus events are important for students to feel a sense of community, especially freshmen.
“Our organization felt it was important to have an in-person bid day because it allows the new members to feel connected to us,” Talbert said. “Many girls going through recruitment are freshmen, so they have not had the opportunity to meet and connect with friends as easily as they have in the past.”
Inskeep stated that success with following safety protocols in the past in-person events this semester such as Winter Wonderland will ensure that we have more on-campus events in the future.
Failure to follow events can result in disciplinary action from the school.
“In the event that a student does not follow COVID procedures during an in-person event at FSC, they will be asked to leave the event and reported to the Office of Accountability, Education and Compliance,” Inskeep said.
