Murals of WSU organizations | Photo by Soham Parikh | The Wright State Guardian
With an expected return to campus in Fall 2021, Wright State University (WSU) sees a significant drop in registered student organizations.
Student Involvement and Leadership data
Student involvement is often seen as essential to the college experience. At the beginning of the pandemic, some of these experiences were cut short due to a move to virtual platforms.
WSU plans on reinstating in-person events and moving organizational activities to an in-person format starting Fall 2021.
READ MORE: New Policies: 5 Things to Know Before Returning to Campus
Despite going back to a face-to-face format, not all student organizations and clubs are returning.
According to Student Involvement and Leadership (SIL) data, in 2019 a total of 152 student organizations including sport clubs, sororities and fraternities and residential organizations were active. In 2020 the total came to 124 organizations and in 2021 just 89 organizations are registered.
All coordinating organizations, the largest organizations on campus that include Student Government and the Black Student Union, are active for the fall semester, according to this data.
Courtney Laukitis, program manager for student organizations, attributes this decline to a multitude of factors including the coronavirus pandemic, limited communication options and uncertainty for Fall 2021.
“As much as I would like to say that it has to do with COVID-19, I think it has more to do with the fact that we have been relying on email communication only to our student organizations for the past year and a half,” Laukitis wrote.
To overcome some of these obstacles Laukitis created the new program titled Student Organization Registration and Training or SORT. Leaders of student organizations must complete this training for their organization to be active on campus.
Through the SORT program’s regular offering and return to campus, Laukitis hopes to bolster student involvement.
“My hope is that this year our students are able to connect to student organizations of shared interests and talents and we can see higher levels of involvement on campus,” Laukitis wrote.
Greek Life
WSU’s robust but non-traditional Greek Life saw peak involvement in 2019 with 22 total fraternities and sororities. Now, only 18 remain.
According to Gina Keucher, program director for fraternity and sorority life, three of these organizations, Lambda Chi Alpha, Beta Phi Omega and Delta Sigma Theta are not active because of recruitment issues.
This decline in interest is attributed to switching to an online format due to COVID-19.
“When Wright State had to go online, we noticed even another huge drop. [If] I’m not with my sisters and my brothers, it definitely causes a disconnect for students,” Brittany Zazueta, president of the College Panhellenic Council, said.
Zazueta elaborated that she is working with Greek life organizations this fall to increase recruitment and lower costs for students, hoping to bolster enrollment.
Suspended until 2023 due to a hazing incident that occurred in 2019 Zeta Phi Beta is the fourth greek life organization not returning this fall, according to SIL.
“It’s [hazing], something of course, that happens sadly still, but I think Wright State is doing a great job of finding out when it does. We have access to ways to get help, to report, to have support,” Zazueta said.
WSU has a zero-tolerance hazing policy for any student organization. In addition to WSU’s policy, Ohio Governor Mike Dewine recently signed Collin’s Law, a law that strictly penalizes hazing.
READ MORE: DeWine Signs Collin’s Law, Enacting Stricter Penalties for Hazing
