Photos show around 200 people attending a party Nov. 7 at two houses on 14th Avenue in Eugene, dubbed “The Orchard” and “The Hills.”
Social media accounts have shared allegations of the party taking place at adjacent houses during the first Ducks football game of the season. Both houses are unaffiliated with any sorority or fraternity chapter houses on campus but are well-known for holding parties attended by members of various Greek life chapters, according to an email to the Emerald from the anonymous Instagram account @covid.campus.
The account posted about the party Nov. 10, stating, “Your 200+ person frat party killed someone,” though zero deaths have been directly traced back to the party as of press time. Administrators of the account told the Emerald they included the statement to stress the likelihood that someone at the party could have been infected with COVID-19.
As of Nov. 3, the University of Oregon Greek system represents 35% of all current outbreak-related cases in Lane County, according to Lane County Public Health.
The Instagram post originally stated that the Sigma Chi and Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternities hosted the party. However, it is unclear what group or individuals started the event. Members of the fraternity Lambda Chi Alpha live at “The Hills,” including the president of the chapter, who declined to comment, saying his organization did not have any official involvement.
The party was attended by members of multiple Greek life chapters at the university, not just the ones mentioned in the post, according to the administrators of the Instagram account.
Adam Saleh, the president of UO’s Sigma Chi, said the post initially had a negative impact on his chapter.
“I totally respect the initiative to have transparency amongst the community,” Saleh said. “I just think there’s a fine line between doing that and just throwing someone under the bus for the sake of throwing someone under the bus.”
Saleh said he placed a mandatory lockdown on his chapter at the beginning of the term so members were not allowed to leave the facility unless their parents were in town or they needed something from the store. Saleh said Sigma Chi has had zero cases of COVID-19, and this party was the first “mistake” by members during the term.
“We’re constantly cracking down on guys; we’re constantly checking up on live-outs making sure no parties are taking place,” Saleh said. “Obviously that day was a bit of a different story. Mistakes were made, but we’ve been able to hold those guys accountable.”
As for repercussions for the members who attended the party, Saleh said he does not want to “jump the gun” and drop anyone from the chapter. Instead, he said he sat the members down and warned them that there will be consequences if this becomes a regular habit.
“I do understand that this is a really difficult time for everyone and a lot of guys are just pent up in their houses right now,” Saleh said. “I want people to know that my chapter specifically is doing everything we can to stop the spread and we will continue to do so until this thing is over.”
In a statement to the Emerald, UO Dean of Students Kris Winter cautioned against assigning responsibility to fraternities, sororities or any other campus groups for the Nov. 7 party.
“The majority of our students continue to do the right things, day-in and day-out, so incidents like this are discouraging for all of us and endanger our community,”she wrote.
Winter said the Office of Student Conduct & Community Standards is actively investigating this event and will not hesitate to hold students accountable through the student discipline process. She said the best way to report violations of COVID-19 safety protocols is through the UO COVID-19 Behavioral Concern online form or by reporting parties to the Eugene Police Department and University of Oregon Police Department for their party patrols.
UOPD Chief Matthew Carmichael said his unit has no jurisdiction over off-campus parties but does respond to EPD to assist. However, on Nov. 7, EPD contacted UOPD about providing potential backup for that call, but UOPD did not have available officers on duty to respond, according to a statement by the agency. The statement also mentioned that a UOPD sergeant visited both addresses last week to warn residents about their behavior and caution them about hosting additional gatherings.
“I guess from a perspective of enforcement, we’re not COVID enforcement,” Carmichael said. “We do refer to students’ code of conduct for especially when there’s a social ordinance violation, you know, minor in possession, those kinds of ordinance violations would get sent to conduct as an example. But again, if the question goes back to ‘Am I issuing tickets or arresting people for something related to COVID?’ The answer’s no.”
UO spokesperson Saul Hubbard said the university is more limited in its ability to monitor activity and respond in real time to reports of student gatherings which occur off campus compared to on campus.But under the student conduct code, UO does have jurisdiction to pursue formal student conduct action for off-campus misconduct.
“If members of the community witness students not complying with face coverings, physical distancing, and symptom self-check guidelines, as required by university policy, this behavior may constitute a violation of the student conduct code,” Hubbard said. “Consequences of violating the code may include educational sanctions, disciplinary probation or suspension, depending on the egregiousness of the behavior.”
Hubbard said the university has received reports of student gatherings throughout the fall before the Pac-12 and the Oregon Health Authority approved the resumption of college football, and football games have not had a major impact on those reports.
Contact tracing information specific to the Nov. 7 party has not been made available as of press time. However, according to a tweet from Philip H. Knight Chair Ellen Peters on the day of the party, “your chances of bumping into at least one person with COVID today are 44% in a group of 100 people, 25% with 50 people, and still 6% with only 10 people. Wear a mask, distance, wash your hands, and enjoy OR’s outdoors!”
Bruno Crolla contributed reporting to this story
