This academic year of 2020-2021 the women of Sigma Kappa Upsilon are calling for live-out status to be granted to all 22 women who requested live-out on our advisor Susan Jones’s 2020-2021 housing survey sent to us on July 8th. Every woman who requested live-out on this form is gravely concerned for the health and safety of not only themselves but of every individual expected to live in the house this academic year.

We need the National Housing Corporation to recognize the risk that the high house capacity imposes on our chapter. This is not only a serious health and safety issue for girls with underlying health conditions or potential at-risk family members, but for healthy girls as well. This is a dangerous virus that NHC is willing to jeopardize us as members for financial reasons.

We expect NHC to recognize the competence of other chapters on the Oregon State University campus as they have lowered their house capacity to around 50% purely for the safety of their members. The measures NHC has announced to attempt to prevent the spread of the virus are ineffective and the house will remain a dangerous place for all women living in the house.

If all 22 girls are not offered live-out status allowing them to break their housing contract with NHC, our chapter will suffer greatly in years to come both financially and in our appeal. This could tarnish our legacy as alumni, potential members, and outside observers criticize the poorly handled situation.

We are firm in our stance that our NHC needs to see us as members, women, and ultimately people, urgent in our request to create a safe living environment for the 22 members requesting live-out, the 31 remaining girls to live in the chapter house, and ultimately our community.