EDUCATION

30 of IU's 40 Greek houses are now under quarantine

Lydia Gerike
Indianapolis Star

Seven more Greek houses at Indiana University-Bloomington are being directed to quarantine because of COVID-19, bringing the total up to 30 as of Wednesday evening.

The list of quarantined houses now includes Chi Omega, Delta Zeta, Sigma Phi Epsilon, Alpha Gamma Delta, Beta Sigma Psi, Kappa Alpha Theta and Alpha Epsilon Pi, IU spokesperson Chuck Carney said in an email. 

There are 2,600 students in 42 communal living houses at IU, Carney said. The houses include 40 fraternity and sorority houses and the Evans Scholars and Christian Student Fellowship houses.

IU Bloomington reported an 8.1% positivity rate among students living in fraternity and sorority housing during its mitigation testing, according to a Monday update to its testing dashboard. Residence halls had a 1.63% positivity rate.

All communal living houses are directed to suspend in-person activities other than dining and housing until at least Sept. 14, Carney said.

Last week, eight houses were on the list of quarantined houses on the IU Division of Student Affairs' website. Fourteen houses were quarantined as of Monday morning.

The quarantine directive comes from the Monroe County Health Department. IU does not own sorority or fraternity houses.

The full list of IU Greek houses under quarantine include:

  • Acacia
  • Alpha Chi Omega
  • Alpha Delta Pi
  • Alpha Epsilon Phi
  • Alpha Omicron Pi
  • Alpha Phi
  • Alpha Sigma Phi
  • Alpha Xi Delta
  • Beta Theta Pi
  • Delta Gamma
  • Gamma Phi Beta
  • Kappa Delta
  • Kappa Kappa Gamma
  • Phi Delta Theta
  • Phi Gamma Delta
  • Phi Kappa Psi
  • Pi Beta Phi
  • Pi Kappa Phi
  • Phi Sigma Kappa
  • Sigma Alpha Epsilon
  • Sigma Chi
  • Theta Chi
  • Zeta Tau Alpha

Also on Wednesday, the Montgomery County Health Department announced an outbreak of 14 cases at Wabash College in Crawfordsville.

The cases are related to communal living, including dormitories and fraternity housing, health officials said.

Bloomington Herald-Times reporter Michael Reschke contributed.

Contact Pulliam Fellow Lydia Gerike at lgerike@gannett.com or follow her on Twitter at @LydiaGerike.