2 USC sororities quarantined: ‘Kids are back and they are partying’
BY JESSICA HOLDMAN and AVERY G. WILKS
jholdman@postandcourier.com awilks@postandcourier.com
COLUMBIA — The University of South Carolina said Tuesday it is quarantining students of two sororities after several residents tested positive for COVID-19 during the first week of classes.
The semester began Thursday but photos and videos of large parties inside homes and around pools at student apartment complexes have been circulating on social media showing hundreds of unmasked people crowded close together. Bob Guild, president of the Granby Mill Village Neighborhood Association several blocks from USC’s Greek Village, said house parties have cranked back up in his neighborhood since students returned to rental homes.
At night, Guild said he can again hear music and the steady din of voices from a rental house near his Pall Mall Street home. Small crowds of college students carrying cases of beer to nearby parties have again become regular sights.
“The kids are back and they are partying,” Guild said.
USC did not name the houses placed under quarantine but they are Delta Delta Delta and Chi Omega, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the quarantine order.
Efforts to reach the leadership of the two houses were unsuccessful Tuesday.
They are among the five largest sororities on campus with more than 300 members each, according to university data. The quarantine lasts up to 14 days and was decided with the input of S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, USC said.
Students affected were either asymptomatic or had minor symptoms with no need for hospitalization, the school said. A small number of fraternity and sorority members, usually about 30, actually live in the houses in the Greek Village off Blossom Street. Most members live off-campus.
The houses are where hundreds of members assemble for daily meals and weekly meetings. The sororities are closed to members who are not living inside the house.
The sororities are providing takeout meals, as well as contact-tracing, for any members living outside the house who were near someone infected.
USC expected rise in coronavirus cases as more than 30,000 students returned for the semester to the state’s largest college. USC is the only large college in the state to start the fall semester with some in-person classes. Other schools, including Clemson University and the College of Charleston, began the semester will all online instruction.
USC reported 90 COVID-19 cases among students in the first 20 days of August. USC had 44 active student cases as of Thursday.
“We moved quickly to identify positive students and then to quarantine the impacted houses and its residents,” USC President BobCaslensaidinastatement.“I remain confident in our ability to mitigate cases through testing, compliant student behaviors, and the wearing of face coverings. Our campus community can be assured that we will act quickly and decisively if student behaviors are not compliant.”
Much of the school’s restrictions apply to on-campus housing and activities in school buildings. USC has limited enforcement of off-campus residences, where most students live, such as the Olympia and Granby neighborhoods where residents have long complained about college students in rentals playing music and partying into the early hours of the morning. Some of the problem houses display flags with Greek letters of USC’s fraternities and sororities, Guild said.
“Despite President Caslen’s optimism, I do think that the real issue is that on-campus enforcement has simply driven the problem into the community,” Guild said. “I’ve yet to see it being effectively dealt with by the university.”
At Olympia Mills apartments Tuesday, a dozen residents played a pickup game on the basketball courts. Only a handful of residents entered the pool area through a gate hung with signage for “I Pledge Columbia,” the personal pledge USC has asked its students to sign saying they would behave in a socially responsible manner to slow the spread of the virus.
The property manager was unavailable for comment and did not respond to emails sent by The Post and Courier. But a mask-wearing staff member did point out a security guard posted poolside, monitoring the handful of sunbathers.
Vi Hendley, a resident of the Olympia neighborhood southwest of USC, said she has seen crowds of unmasked students at the Olympia Mills pool, and students still pack house parties near her home of three decades. “They are drinking and drugging way too much,” Hendley said.
“They’re yelling and screaming and not wearing masks and not social distancing.”
The Columbia City Council is poised to pass a crackdown on landlords who allow large house or apartment parties as a way to contain the virus that has struck those under age 30 the most in South Carolina.
The council asked student apartment complexes to close community pools to stop large gatherings.
Columbia City Councilman Ed McDowell said Columbia police have responded to at least two house parties in the past couple weeks, both in the Waverly area.
A group of 75 to 100 students was dispersed from one home. Then, Airbnb was contacted after a party at one of its rental properties was broken up Friday.
BY JESSICA HOLDMAN and AVERY G. WILKS
jholdman@postandcourier.com awilks@postandcourier.com
COLUMBIA — The University of South Carolina said Tuesday it is quarantining students of two sororities after several residents tested positive for COVID-19 during the first week of classes.
The semester began Thursday but photos and videos of large parties inside homes and around pools at student apartment complexes have been circulating on social media showing hundreds of unmasked people crowded close together. Bob Guild, president of the Granby Mill Village Neighborhood Association several blocks from USC’s Greek Village, said house parties have cranked back up in his neighborhood since students returned to rental homes.
At night, Guild said he can again hear music and the steady din of voices from a rental house near his Pall Mall Street home. Small crowds of college students carrying cases of beer to nearby parties have again become regular sights.
“The kids are back and they are partying,” Guild said.
USC did not name the houses placed under quarantine but they are Delta Delta Delta and Chi Omega, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the quarantine order.
Efforts to reach the leadership of the two houses were unsuccessful Tuesday.
They are among the five largest sororities on campus with more than 300 members each, according to university data. The quarantine lasts up to 14 days and was decided with the input of S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, USC said.
Students affected were either asymptomatic or had minor symptoms with no need for hospitalization, the school said. A small number of fraternity and sorority members, usually about 30, actually live in the houses in the Greek Village off Blossom Street. Most members live off-campus.
The houses are where hundreds of members assemble for daily meals and weekly meetings. The sororities are closed to members who are not living inside the house.
The sororities are providing takeout meals, as well as contact-tracing, for any members living outside the house who were near someone infected.
USC expected rise in coronavirus cases as more than 30,000 students returned for the semester to the state’s largest college. USC is the only large college in the state to start the fall semester with some in-person classes. Other schools, including Clemson University and the College of Charleston, began the semester will all online instruction.
USC reported 90 COVID-19 cases among students in the first 20 days of August. USC had 44 active student cases as of Thursday.
“We moved quickly to identify positive students and then to quarantine the impacted houses and its residents,” USC President BobCaslensaidinastatement.“I remain confident in our ability to mitigate cases through testing, compliant student behaviors, and the wearing of face coverings. Our campus community can be assured that we will act quickly and decisively if student behaviors are not compliant.”
Much of the school’s restrictions apply to on-campus housing and activities in school buildings. USC has limited enforcement of off-campus residences, where most students live, such as the Olympia and Granby neighborhoods where residents have long complained about college students in rentals playing music and partying into the early hours of the morning. Some of the problem houses display flags with Greek letters of USC’s fraternities and sororities, Guild said.
“Despite President Caslen’s optimism, I do think that the real issue is that on-campus enforcement has simply driven the problem into the community,” Guild said. “I’ve yet to see it being effectively dealt with by the university.”
At Olympia Mills apartments Tuesday, a dozen residents played a pickup game on the basketball courts. Only a handful of residents entered the pool area through a gate hung with signage for “I Pledge Columbia,” the personal pledge USC has asked its students to sign saying they would behave in a socially responsible manner to slow the spread of the virus.
The property manager was unavailable for comment and did not respond to emails sent by The Post and Courier. But a mask-wearing staff member did point out a security guard posted poolside, monitoring the handful of sunbathers.
Vi Hendley, a resident of the Olympia neighborhood southwest of USC, said she has seen crowds of unmasked students at the Olympia Mills pool, and students still pack house parties near her home of three decades. “They are drinking and drugging way too much,” Hendley said.
“They’re yelling and screaming and not wearing masks and not social distancing.”
The Columbia City Council is poised to pass a crackdown on landlords who allow large house or apartment parties as a way to contain the virus that has struck those under age 30 the most in South Carolina.
The council asked student apartment complexes to close community pools to stop large gatherings.
Columbia City Councilman Ed McDowell said Columbia police have responded to at least two house parties in the past couple weeks, both in the Waverly area.
A group of 75 to 100 students was dispersed from one home. Then, Airbnb was contacted after a party at one of its rental properties was broken up Friday.
