URI issues shelter-in-place order for all sororities and fraternities to contain virus spread
The University of Rhode Island has issued a shelter-in-place order for all fraternities and sororities beginning Friday night at 9 p.m.
KINGSTON, R.I. (WLNE)– The University of Rhode Island has issued a shelter-in-place order for all fraternities and sororities beginning Friday night at 9 p.m.
The statement was issued just before 7 p.m. Friday evening, and comes as the university has sought to test all students for the coronavirus, those both living on- and off-campus.
The order is expected to last until Saturday, Oct. 24, according to the statement.
Students living within Greek community houses are not permitted to leave their residences except for medical reasons, or to access other essential services such as grocery shopping, school spokesman Dave Lavallee said in the statement.
According to the statement, the move came as the positivity rate within Greek housing was found to be 11.17 percent.
By comparison, the school said on-campus students were testing positive at a rate of .65 percent, while off-campus students were testing positive at 3.83 percent.
“This difficult decision is being made to help stop the spread of the virus,” Lavallee said in the statement. “We know that many members of the Greek community have followed the guidelines on face coverings and physical distancing.”
The move comes after some confusion arose over the best way to handle positive cases in the school’s Greek houses caused concern for students and school officials.
“It’s tough to judge why it’s spreading so rapidly especially among Greek students because I think the Greek community has been doing a really good job so far,” said Member of Zeta Beta Tau Daniel Rydel.
On Thursday, a sorority was given an hour to move out of its house after three residents tested positive — a decision made by the organization that runs the building, not the university itself, Lavallee told ABC6 News.
The present order makes clear that the school expects fraternity and sorority members to stay put in their residences.
“We want them to stay here,” Lavallee said earlier today. “We want them to not spread the virus to family members, other community members, that kind of thing. And it also gives us a chance to monitor their situation.”
“It’s a stretch, you know? I don’t think everyone is going to stay at home, I don’t think everyone’s not going to go for runs, not gonna go to the beach,” said Rydel.”It’s kind of unrealistic.”
In a statement Lavallee said that chapters that have not had any cases of the virus can apply for an exception to the shelter-in-place order.
©WLNE-TV/ABC6 2020
