COVID-19 & Longwood
Jared Brennan
Longwood University
Abstract
Longwood University has been put into a difficult situation with the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic goes bigger than just Longwood, but the purpose of this research is to analyze Longwood student’s thoughts and opinions on how Longwood is handling the pandemic. More specifically, how the Greek life is being affected by the pandemic and its relation to student behavior. This problem that Longwood, along with every other university/school, is facing has a lack of literature because it is fairly recent. This study is a mixed methods research using self-evaluated survey questions as the quantitative data and open-ended survey questions as the qualitative data. Certain themes appear in this research, such as a being satisfied with how Longwood has handled this last semester during the pandemic. As well as, the lack of in-person classes and its effect on student’s mental health. The numbers are less when it comes to students involved in Greek life than not, but the data suggests that being in a Greek organization there shows to be lower satisfaction than students not involved in such organizations. The discussion of how to improve satisfaction by increasing safety guidelines to allow for more in person classes and socially distanced social events around and on campus could greatly be improved when looking at the data presented.
COVID-19 & Longwood
Fraternities and Sororities, also known as Greek life, are social organizations at colleges and universities. The overall satisfaction of Greek life students at Longwood is lower than students not involved with Greek life. According to the CDC, COVID-19 (Corona Virus Disease) is caused by a germ (virus) that can make the body sick. People who have COVID-19 may have a cough, fever and trouble taking deep breaths. The biggest problem at the moment is the lack of research done in relation to the impact that COVID-19 has had on universities Greek organizations. This research intends to reach out to specifically students involved in Greek organizations because this is data can directly be affecting them. Acknowledging that this lack of socialization can cause mental health issues and lower motivation is a start to finding solutions to improve such problems. The purpose is to shed light on a dying light of our college experience. Greek life involvement has been decreasing over the years and with a loss of ability to socialize and increase campus morale, in a time when Greek organizations could be helping the most with spreading awareness and practicing social distancing.
Literature Review
This review analyzes how the changes to Greek life on college campuses during COVID-19 have changed the attitudes of students and their college experiences. The global impact of COVID-19 is devastating and growing, the impact it has on college campuses and its students and faculty has played negatively, and the opinions that students in the global aspect have on online schools.
According to data collected up until April 5th, 2020, COVID-19 has affected 181 countries with over 1,197,405 confirmed cases. In the vast majority of those who are infected (approx. 80%), they are mild cases. While nearly the remaining 20% have severe complications or are critical disease victims. The United States has the most confirmed cases followed by Spain and Italy (Dehkordi et al. April 5th, 2020). Following the outburst in confirmed cases globally, one of the many decisions that had to be made was, what’s going to happen to the schools? First, in person classes began to be moved to online zoom classes for the remainder of the spring semester. This was initiated to help increase the amount of social distancing and to reduce the amount of spreading of COVID-19 among the youth. Universities plans in the upcoming fall were to use a hybrid system to allow students to experience online classes but still having the opportunity to have some in person classes throughout the semester (Majowicz, S.E., 2020). Problems with bringing back student bodies to campus have been a big concern for most, because classes only last so long during the day. There are no stopping students from interacting in close quarters without masks or not applying other safe procedures once they get done with classes and go out to the bars, or a house, even a dorm room. Major campuses such as Notre Dame and UNC Chapel Hill were forced to shut down and send everyone home not more than two weeks into the semester due to an alarming 130 infections in the first week and over 750 in the first month (Yamey, G. and Walensky R.P., 2020). There was no blame on the students but to the universities for reopening plans that were too dangerous. The expectation to not go out, have sex, drink, and socialize is “bound to fail”. Especially with Greek life playing a big role in the socialization of students on campus (Yamey and Walensky, 2020).
There was an examination of over 750,000 undergraduate members and 9 million alumni of social collegiate Greek letter organizations across the United States. There are plenty of stereotypes about Greek organizations (Routon and Walker, 2016). Members of Greek organizations drink alcohol more often and in much larger amounts, perform riskier sexual behavior, as well as larger and more frequent social interactions off campus (Routon and Walker, 2016). A study attempted to “explore implicit attitudes towards members of social fraternities and sororities.” (Wells et al., 2008). They found that Greek members had a bias when it came to categorizing fraternities under good as a description while Non-Greek members were faster to associate names of fraternities and sororities with the attributes such as bad. The conclusion was that students who pledge a Greek organization are more likely to grow a more positive attitude towards Greek life while those who don’t will continue to have an explicit attitude. Greek members no longer feel racial discrimination within Greek life, that they have greater view shifts towards legalizing marijuana, and more interestingly found that Greek males strongly agree that even if a man feels baited or led on by a female, that does not give him the right to have sex with her. There are many beneficial attributes to joining a Greek organization. The moral and psychological well-being of students can also be positively impacted due to Greek life ( Routon and Walker, 2016).
The moral development of students in Greek life is easier as they “constitute a visible and powerful part of student culture”. As most Greek organizations implant the idea of good character, loyalty, and respect to its new members constantly (Mathiasen, Robert E., 2005). Majority of higher education students in Pakistan have had reservations about online classes. Factors such as lack of internet access and lack of technology are problems that they have. There are no apparent research studies for students’ attitudes during COVID-19 in the United States (Adnan and Anwar, 2020),. The limits put on Greek life on campus during the COVD-19 pandemic is an unknown situation for anyone and there will be more studies and surveys later as the United States learns and grows from mistakes that have been made in the past.
The global impact of COVID-19 is devastating and growing, the impact it has on college campuses and its students and faculty has played negatively, and the opinions that students in the global aspect have on online schools.
Methods and Data
Participants
This research is made to share the views and opinions form a variety of students at Longwood University on how the university is handling the COVID-19 pandemic. A non-probability convenient sample was used. Focused on policies enacted cause of COVID-19, mental and physical health of students, the demographic areas, and how courses are offered. Faculty in the criminal justice/sociology/psychology departments were asked to share with all their classes. Students will post the survey on Facebook class pages to reach out to each class enrolled in longwood. Members of Greek organizations sent the survey to their Greek organizations. The survey has also been sent through longwood (Division 1) and club athletics programs.
Materials and Design
A questionnaire is the form of information being received; it contains mainly closed-ended questions with three open-ended questions throughout. (Blank) surveys came from a mixture of college students within Greek organizations, club sports, NCAA sports, etc. The dependent variable is the attitude of students at Longwood University during the COVID-19 pandemic. Questions in this survey help to determine how students feel about how the university is handling the pandemic and how their experience at school is using a scaling system from 0 to 10. The independent variable is what Longwoods faculty and staff are handling protecting themselves and the students from COVID-19, as well as the protocols that have been put in place around the school and the town of Farmville. These variables are important because it will help give us a better picture of the mental and physical well-being of the Longwood student body. We will be analyzing your close-ended survey questions using descriptive statistics and figures. The open-ended questions are attempting to gain more personal knowledge on the survey taker’s well-being with more in-depth answers.
Procedure
We are sending through email and google doc links the survey to students in all classes and organizations. They are asked to take the survey, with the option to skip whatever they want. We will analyze the closed and open-ended questions and ask ourselves how credible they are? How well it aims our initial intent? Along with other questions to determine the effectiveness of the survey.
Quantitative Findings
The dependent variable is a self-evaluated standing of the overall college experience this semester. This is asked on a 0(very dissatisfied) to 10(very satisfied) scale. The independent variable is what organization the subject is a part of. More specifically, if they are in a Greek organization. They were asked if they were a part of a list of organizations, club sports, Greek life, division 1 sports, or another option if their club/organization not listed. The hypothesis is that even though COVID-19 has put a damper on the college experience, being a part of a Greek organization makes the college experience better.
The mean score for the self-evaluated standing of overall college experience this semester was 4.91. The standard deviation was 2.65. There is 68% of the students that answered between 2.26 and 7.56. This means that the answers for the dependent variable vary greatly.
Table 1
Percent of students in Greek life
| Organization | Counts | Percent | |
| Greek life | 160 | 36.95 | |
| Other | 273 | 63.05 |
Note. N=433
Table 1 shows the percent of respondents who are part of Greek life or another campus organization. The majority of respondents were not a part of a Greek organization (63.05%). Though the respondents who are in a Greek organization make up more than one/third of the respondents (36.95%).
Table 2
Mean self-evaluated satisfaction of college experience this semester by organizations
| Organization | Counts | Mean | |
| Greek life | 160 | 4.41 | |
| Other | 272 | 5.22 | |
| Undefined | 2 | 0 |
Note. N=433
Table 2 shows the relation between overall satisfaction in the college experience this semester and Greek life. The respondents who did not have any Greek affiliation showed to have a higher mean in satisfaction at 5.22. There were 112 more respondents that were non-Greek affiliated than Greek affiliated. The undefined respondent left the organization question blank but answered a two on the satisfaction scale. It is about 55% lower than the respondents who were affiliated with Greek life.
The original hypothesis stated that even during the restricted college experience due to COVID-19, students in Greek organizations are more satisfied with the experience than other students. But what the data shows is that the mean satisfaction of respondents in any other organization that’s not Greek life is just slightly higher (5.22) than the respondents in Greek life (4.41).
Qualitative Findings
The swing in mental health of college students can be attributed to multiple factors occurring during COVID-19 such as living in a more restricted “college” experience, having more distractions and less motivation around you when in class or studying, and the changes to such classes from in person to a more online format. The data from the open-ended questions showed that students felt “tired” and “distracted” while taking online classes instead of the traditional in-person style. Student 77 answered “Greek life” when asked what is going well this semester. This was the only participant who answered with a Greek-related answer in the open-ended questions. There were no specific Greek life questions asked in the open-ended questions.
Students were asked if there was anything about Longwood and the changes they have gone through during COVID-19, in which Student 271 stated “ I believe that the changes that Longwood made due to the virus were not completely thought out with respect to the mental health of its students. There are people who thrive because they are social and when that is taken away they suffer.” After diving into the socialization of students during COVID-19, 271 attributes “the guest policy” and how it “was poorly re-evaluated because they only waited two weeks into school to do that, which would of course not been enough time.”
The lack of in class learning has made an impact in the mental health of students, according to Student 226 “It is harder to motivate myself to do work when my classes are online. I sometimes feel lost in my classes.” The data suggests that COVID has played a significant factor in the drop of motivation and energy in students.
Conclusion
The main point of this research was to analyze the effect that COIVD-19 has had on students, more specifically students involved in Greek organizations. According to the findings of this research, it shows that Greek students have had lower satisfaction with Longwood’s COVID-19 procedures. Students are also more inclined to be distracted while in online classes than if they were to be in person. The big picture of this research is to understand that education is important, but so is mental health. What college students are going through is something unexpected, unprepared, and exhausting. Being able to shed more light on the problems will help create brighter discussions to help improve them.
References
Adnan, M. (2019, November 30). Online Learning amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: Students’ Perspectives. Retrieved September 29, 2020, from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED606496
Chao, R. C. (2012). Managing Perceived Stress Among College Students: The Roles of Social Support and Dysfunctional Coping. Journal of College Counseling, 15(1), 5–21. https://doi-org.proxy.longwood.edu/10.1002/j.2161-1882.2012.00002.x
Hoseinpour Dehkordi, A, Alizadeh, M, Derakhshan, P, Babazadeh, P, Jahandideh, A. Understanding epidemic data and statistics: A case study of COVID‐19. J Med Virol. 2020; 92: 868– 882. https://doi.org/10.1002/jmv.25885
Majowicz, S. E. (2020). What might the future bring? COVID-19 planning considerations for faculty and universities. Epidemiology and Infection, 148 doi:http://dx.doi.org.proxy.longwood.edu/10.1017/S0950268820000898
Mathiasen, R. E. (2005). Moral Development in Fraternity Members: A Case Study. College Student Journal, 39(2), 242–252.
Routon, P. W., & Walker, J. K. (2016). Attitude Changes and Self-Perceived Skill Gains from Collegiate Greek Organization Membership. Social Science Quarterly (Wiley-Blackwell), 97(3), 807–822. https://doi-org.proxy.longwood.edu/10.1111/ssqu.12310
Wells, B., & Corts, D. P. (2008). Measuring Attitudes Towards Sorority and Fraternity Members: Indication of Implicit, Ingroup Favoritism. College Student Journal, 42(3), 842–846.