This Monday marked a new beginning for many first year students as the final day of sorority recruitment, Bid Day, took place across east campus.

Recruitment looked different this year in more ways than one, with a hybrid of virtual and in-person rounds carrying over from last year’s COVID-era operations and against the backdrop of Rushtok. Rushtok is an online phenomenon that has occurred on Tik Tok the last few weeks, with women from many American universities making Tik Toks about their recruitment experiences.

With videos from both sides of recruitment being posted, people already involved in Greek life as well as many incoming college students got to see the amount of work that rushers and rushees have to do for the process.

For girls going through rush, videos ranged from girls showing off each piece of their meticulously-planned outfits to experiencing physical and emotional exhaustion from the process. Southern universities in particular have very intense rush processes, with a lot of Rushtok discourse centering around the University of Alabama and other deep South schools whose Greek organizations are traditionally upper class and white.

On the other end, sororities hoping to attract girls to their chapter made many Tik Toks during the time leading up to recruitment, sometimes sporting themed costumes or color-coordinated outfits and running around their sorority house. Social media was already a significant part of sorority recruitment and operations before Tik Tok- most of Georgia Tech’s sorority Instagram pages have been long established, with thousands of followers and hundreds of posts.

When asked about the appearance of sorority social media pages, a student who went through recruitment at Georgia Tech this year said, “[The sororities] all seemed similar to their social media during rush, but I know rush is the time where sororities put on their best face and pretend to be perfect for the [potential new members] coming in.”

Since social media is the next best thing for incoming freshmen to take a look into Greek life behind knowing someone who is in it herself, sororities curate their accounts to look the best and most professional that they can.

The phenomenon of Rushtok showed the variability of what someone experiences during recruitment, based on factor such as what school you go to, how much money you have, and where you are from.

Even with all of the Rushtok hype, one first year was still surprised by her rush experience noting “Overall, I had a good rush experience; I was lucky enough to not be dropped by any sororities and I had some fun talking to some of the girls. It was not as stressful as I had anticipated but it was very difficult deciding which sororities to drop or choose as it’s hard to get an idea of what they were like based on the front they put out during rush.”

This spring, Tech began implementing a new Pathway Program for Atlanta Public School (APS) students to receive automatic admission to the Institute up to 2 years following their high school graduation. The APS Pathway Program will operate similarly to other pathway programs already in place. A student must take 30 semester credit hours or 45 quarter credit hours at another institution and earn at least a 3.3 overall GPA and a 3.3 math/science GPA in order to receive guaranteed admission.

The biggest difference between the APS Pathway Program and Tech’s other programs, like the Arts & Sciences Pathway, the Conditional Transfer Pathway and the First-Generation Pathway, is the time period that a student has to accept the admissions offer. While the other programs only allow a student admission for one year following their high school graduation, the APS Program allows two years to accept the offer.

This is not the first time that Tech has offered support to APS students. Since 2015, the APS Scholars Program at Tech has offered automatic admission to valedictorians and salutatorians of APS, as well as full coverage of tuition and mandatory fees.

This new program comes during an unusual time for low-income students nationwide. While high school graduation rates were not largely impacted in 2020, the percentage of students who went to college following their graduation decreased dramatically.

The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center found that students in low-income, high minority high schools saw a decrease in college attendance by almost double the amount that it did for students from higher-income areas. This has major potential to affect economic mobility and income equality in low-income and minority communities moving forward, with rural America being the most vulnerable.

In Oct. 2020, USA Today found that out of the top 50 counties with the highest COVID-19 death rate, 12 were in Georgia, and all but one were rural. Included in this list were Hancock, Randolph, Terrell and Early, which are majority-minority counties that are considered to be a part of the Black Belt in Georgia.

The Black Belt is an area of fertile land stretching across the Southeast that hosted a heavy presence of slave labor historically, leading to larger Black populations that have suffered socially and economically from segregation and discrimination compared to areas with a majority-white population.

School districts in Black Belt areas have higher poverty rates and lower school enrollment rates than the rest of Georgia. The Georgia Budget and Policy Institute (GBPI) found that between 2007 and 2018, 110,000 more students enrolled in Georgia public schools, but districts in the Black Belt lost 18,000. Even Black students in APS, which is not a part of the Black Belt, had a graduation rate 20% lower than white students in their district in 2020, as reported by APS.

While increased government funding to underperforming or low-income areas is at high demand, existing programs have unfortunately posed problems for school districts. APS went through the ringer for six years when a massive cheating scandal was uncovered, revealing that teachers and principals were intentionally changing students’ CRCT test scores at the will of the district.

This was motivated by the No Child Left Behind and the Race to the Top Programs, created by President Bush and President Obama respectively, that use increased federal funding to incentivize schools to push greater test scores from students. Scandals like the one that occurred in APS have happened across the country because of these incentives, showing the potentially problematic consequences of rewarding academic achievement with better funding and higher pay.

With state and federal education reform long underway, university programs and partnerships such as the APS Pathway are providing positive incremental change to the Georgia educational landscape.

The University of Georgia (UGA) created an initiative in 2014 to recruit students at risk of dropping out or underperforming due to extenuating circumstances to a more specialized, flexible charter school. They also began a partnership with APS to expose high school students to UGA’s programs. Kennesaw State University (KSU) began a partnership with the Cumberland Academy of Georgia, a school for special needs students, with a dual enrollment program for seniors to encourage overall attendance and easier integration into college. All of these initiatives target specific areas and provide support to areas in greater need. Tech has created other programs besides the APS Pathway and Scholars Programs to help support more marginalized or disproportionately disadvantaged communities. For example, the First-Generation Pathway Program provides a transfer pathway to students with first-generation college student status, and the Talent Initiative Pathway Program provides the same for students who qualify for the Pell Grant.

However, graduation and college attendance rates in other districts, especially those in the Black Belt, suggest that Tech’s efforts to improve its accessibility in the state of Georgia have much room for expansion.

The systemic issues with schools in the previously-mentioned areas and other under-funded districts need addressing on the state level, but Tech can also follow in the footsteps of UGA and KSU with their integrative programs, or the APS Scholars Program could be made to be an extended to other school districts in need.

The APS Program is a good step in the right direction to increased access to higher education for low-income and minority students in state of Georgia.

Like most student experiences in the past 11 months, the annual GT Night at the Aquarium looked a little different this year. The event, hosted by the Student Center Programs Committee (SCPC), fell on the brisk evening of Feb. 19, and ran from 6 p.m. until 11 p.m.

Students were sold tickets with specific entry time slots in order to stagnate congestion, and the amount of tickets sold was very limited compared to
previous years.

As students rushed to the entrance to escape the cold, they went through many common COVID-19 protocols.

Overhead announcements asked attendees to observe social distancing and signs on the ground denoted spots in line that were six feet apart.

Also, placards advocated for mask-wearing in the aquarium and hand sanitizer stations were provided throughout the event.

Additionally, an employee checked each person’s temperature before they were able to step in the building.

Every Georgia Aquarium employee and SCPC volunteer wore a mask, and the ticket handlers wore masks and gloves.

A stack of disposable masks laid on the tables in front of them for students to wear.

A separate, limited amount of tickets were also offered for two different dolphin shows at 6:50 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Two fourth-year BIO majors, Bianca McAlister and Detriana Edwards, were in the socially-distanced queue for the show.

“I think it’s pretty good,” McAlister said, when asked how she felt about the COVID protocols in place.

“It’s spaced out, there’s not a lot of people, there’s plexiglass in places necessary.”

As a GT Aquarium Night veteran and an employee of the Georgia Aquarium, McAlister also observed the low amount of traffic compared to previous years.

“[The aquarium]’s pretty big. I work here, and compared to a regular day when it’s literally packed, this is maybe one-fifth of the amount of people normally here,” she said.

Currently, tensions run high across the country as people are becoming more comfortable with hosting events with large groups of people.

In the case of aquarium night, while most other students did not hear of any criticism, Edwards shared that her and McAlister’s mutual friend was not happy about them attending the event.

“Some people [are uncomfortable], I guess just because it’s a confined area, it’s like … the stigma of being in a confined area,” said Edwards. “I think if our friend would have seen what it was like, she would have felt more comfortable.”

The general consensus with the event’s attendees was that the SCPC’s COVID protocols made them feel safe.

“It was the best they could have done given the circumstances,” said a first-year ME student.

“Everything that you have to touch is closed — the stingrays, the starfish — that’s probably the main difference I saw,” a first-year masters student said when comparing this year’s event to previous years.

“I think knowing that it’s a completely Georgia Tech event makes me feel a little bit better because I know that we have the surveillance testing.”

Some students had even received the vaccine before the aquarium event, a promising sign for future large-scale campus functions.

“I got the first dose of Moderna because I’m in an EMS class, and [my friend, Avi Pearlman] has gotten both doses,” said Isha Perry, first-year neuroscience major.

The beginning of vaccine distribution, however, did not affect how safe they felt at the event.

“We feel fine either way being here because everyone gets tested. We get tested twice a week, everybody we know gets tested two times a week,” said Perry.

Other students expressed that there simply were not enough students that have received the vaccine to make a difference.

“I feel like I’ve seen a lot of people not wearing masks these days on campus, but I can’t tell if it’s because they just don’t want to or if they got the vaccine,” a first-year ME student said. “I don’t know, I don’t feel any safer with the vaccine.”

From the perspective of the students who were SCPC volunteers and workers at the event, Tech students were very good about following the rules they had set in place. A fourth-year SCPC volunteer working the tables was positive about student reception to events.

“I think after last semester and seeing how we handled the events, I think a lot of people have been really open to our events this semester,” the volunteer said.

“When [friends] ask me about it, I know the logistics, and I know we’re running way under capacity of what we normally could have here. I know that we’re safe, and the aquarium does a really good job at laying out all the rules.”

When asked if this kind of event could have been hosted last semester before vaccine distribution started, she answered, “I think what [stopped] us from doing an event like this last semester was just experience and just feeling it out.

We could have done Six Flags last semester, and we didn’t, just because we were very new to this event planning with the pandemic, and we didn’t want to do one to this scale.”

Two second-year SCPC volunteers spoke about their experience enforcing the protocols.

“If we were seeing someone who didn’t wear a mask, we told them to put on their mask.

We tell people to stand farther apart, even if they are roommates or friends.

We just want to enforce that and keep everyone safe,” said one of the volunteers.

Her fellow volunteer observed, “I volunteered before the dolphin show, which is a huge event here, and I was actually kind of surprised at how people actually properly wore their mask, properly distanced, and they were really easy to regulate, too.”

In the final hour of the fun-filled night at the aquarium, one of the second-year SCPC volunteers shared what makes them the most happy, saying, “I’ve had a lot of students here be like, ‘Oh, thank you so much for putting this on, we really love it,’ etc … and that makes it all worth it.”