Thursday Key News

In this Issue:

• Student Health Service is now Deacon Health
• Additional health reminders as students return to campus
• Men’s fraternity recruitment

Only three topics today, Deac families, but they are more lengthy – so we’ll get right to it.

Student Health Service is now Deacon Health

One of the changes that has come at the start of the new year is that our Student Health Service has been renamed Deacon Health:

“During the global health pandemic in 2020, Student Health Service provided leadership in managing the significant challenges posed by this global health crisis. Now under a new name, the committed team of Deacon Health professionals is ready to return to its core mission of providing high-quality medical care and support to undergraduate, graduate and professional students, including our student-athletes on the Reynolda campus.”

If you aren’t familiar with Deacon Health, here are some of the key things you should know:

“[There is a] team of five primary care providers, ten nurses, three certified medical assistants, and four support staff.  With an onsite pharmacist, lab director and x-ray radiologic technician, Deacon Health is well-resourced to meet student needs.

Deacon Health offers students a wide range of medical and wellbeing care: general physicals, annual reproductive health exams, immunizations and allergy injections, routine illness and injury care, and psychiatric support.

In addition to these fundamental medical services, Deacon Health provides pharmaceutical and laboratory services for on-campus and at-home providers, preparatory preventative counseling, and support for students traveling for study abroad. Additionally, we maintain community partnerships for benefits such as STI clinics and obtaining convenient and low-cost medications. Students seeking medical care are encouraged to schedule an appointment through their student portal.”

Longtime Daily Deac readers have probably heard me say that I would have loved to be a patient at Deacon Health (and for my ’27 too) if they served employees/families. I know many of the folks on staff personally and have worked with them on some really tough things – both COVID and complicated student medical situations. Deacon Health is incredibly professional and they care deeply about our students, plus they specialize in college student medicine.

Additional health reminders as students return to campus

Our Campus Health Committee shared information regarding students’ return to campus following the winter break. You can read the entire message on the Campus Health website, and I will hit a couple of key points below:

• North Carolina continues to experience a high volume of influenza (flu), as do other parts of the country. Two other respiratory illnesses, COVID and RSV, are also prevalent in many places.
• Masks remain an effective personal strategy to mitigate the risk of spreading germs and contracting viruses. Consider wearing a mask when attending large public gatherings or on public transportation such as airplanes and airports. 
• Do not return to campus while you are actively ill [NOTE: the message lists out specific guidelines by illness]

Here’s my additional $0.02: it would be wise to make sure your students have a medical kit in their room just in case they need it. Suggested items:

• Basic first aid supplies: Band-Aids, antibiotic ointment, gauze pads
• Over the counter medicines: pain medicine/fever reducer, benadryl/antihistamines, cold and cough medicine, cough drops, digestive meds (anti diarrheal, heartburn, etc.)
• Thermometer
• At-home COVID test(s) and masks (in case they test positive for COVID, they will need to follow CDC guidelines for isolation and masking)
• Any prescription medicine they take
• Misc: eye drops, birth control/condoms (only you will know what is appropriate for your family’s values)
• A supply of food/drink they can have in the room that doesn’t need a lot of preparation (Gatorade, soup, crackers, granola bars, etc.). Have something at the ready if your Deac needs food (and does not want to have to go to the Pit, etc.).

Men’s fraternity recruitment

For parents/families of sons, I am frequently asked about what fraternity recruitment looks like for them. I am going to do my best. As always, I want to stipulate upfront that I am Switzerland in matters of Greek life, so every student should do what’s right for them. Also, these are my opinions, not Wake’s.

There is a huge difference in the men’s and women’s processes – the short version is that sorority recruitment is highly structured and fraternity recruitment is not. 

Men’s recruitment runs from January 18th and bids go out on January 24th. While sorority recruitment follows a prescribed process with daily events and particular milestones, fraternity recruitment is much more casual. Much of the process for the men may look more like men hanging out, or watching or playing sports, rather than being at a formal recruitment event.

Most chapters use the formal recruitment period to refine a list of men that they have been getting to know in the fall to make sure that there is a good fit between that man and the chapter. The various fraternities will host events that expose the current members to each prospective member in a variety of situations: these could include athletic activities, informal gatherings, and/or coat and tie events. Men would be wise to keep their options open and consider all groups, not just the fraternities they think they’d be a best fit for.

A lot of the recruitment process is done by distro lists (whether that is group text, group chat, emails, etc.). A man could be receiving invitations to events from fraternity A for a time, and then suddenly stop getting invites. That is typically the sign that the man is no longer being considered for that fraternity. Sometimes a fraternity will actually contact the student to say they are moving on, other times their ‘notification’ they are no longer being considered is that invites stop. This can vary from chapter to chapter. 

While sororities are required to extend a specific number of invitations to make a quota, the fraternities are free to extend as many – or as few – invitations as they wish. Though it is generally a good sign if your son is receiving invites to fraternity X or Y’s events up until Bid Day, that does not necessarily mean he will get a bid to join those groups.  

Bids will go out on January 24th. It is possible that your son could get no bid, one bid, or multiple bids (and then he has to choose which one to join). Just as with sororities, it can sting if you are not invited back to the group of choice. Also just like sororities, I deeply believe there are all types of men in all groups, so any group will have a range of personalities and behaviors and you would find commonality with some and differences with others. There is no one perfect group. My Harry Potter sorting hat analogy works here too – for men who get a bid, they have tended to land in groups that suit them.

Families want to take note that there are organizations that are not recognized by the University (though some are still recognized by their national organization); see here for more information

The University discourages students joining these unrecognized organizations. Because they are unrecognized, these groups do not have faculty/staff advisors, there is no University oversight or training in important topics like harm reduction, they may not have insurance, etc. In addition, the University does not manage or have information on their recruitment or pledging processes. If your student is interested in joining one of these organizations, it would be helpful for you to have a conversation with your Deac about the ramifications of being in an unrecognized fraternity.

If your son is going to go through recruitment, I wish them all the best. And just as with the women, if the process does not go as they hoped, encourage them to seek support from our various resources (RAs, Counseling Center, etc.). We’ll share some info about NPHC (National Pan-Hellenic Conference) intake next week.