I actually think that commuter campuses are greatly helped by having a greek system, it's a great way to meet people on a campus where a lot of people don't live together. I know being in a soror has given me more of a "college" experience since I can't have some of the other things that go along with college life like eating nasty dining center food or leaving notes on your friends' white boards...

I love my commuter school!

We don't have houses but the fraternities are getting houses this year...Fiji already has theirs with about 40 guys living there now...
FIU is moving away from the commuter image with a football team, 2 new dorm buildings, and 3 new campus buildings...things are looking really good...
as far as meetings and such everyone has meetings thursday nights in the student union building, if your greek your there on thursday night...
our campus is run by greeks and we get ALOT of campus support...its a great way to get involved on a campus like ours...
i live on campus and I love it!!! the dorms here are almost like condos... but they come at a price...
i live with one of my phi sisters (that means we rushed together) and so far its been great...a few of my sisters also live on campus but the majority live at home...

soon FIU will be in big competition with UM... since its in the same city...but im glad i came here being in a commuter school isnt as bad as i thought it would be ;)

www.fiu.edu/~greeks

The University of Akron is very much a LARGE commutter campus. Only 3% of our campus is Greek which when you truly think about it isn't alot (even though there are around 700 members in the Greek System). However....80% of the organizations on campus are led by Greeks.
All of our IFC and Panhellenic groups have houses...some are bigger, some are smaller. When it comes to women's recruitment, DG, ADPi, and Kappa are able to host Pref in their houses. Alpha Gam and Alpha Phi don't have large houses so they use rooms in the student center for their Pref parties. Our typical Formal Recruitment (usually in the Fall) is 4-5 days. Quota ranges from 10-15 and house total is 65. None of our groups at the moment are at total. DG hit total in Fall 01 due to our efforts (along with our nationals) to COB so much that we would increase our numbers. We hit quota during recruitment (which was 12) and the week later we took 20 women...taking us to 32 new members and making that the biggest pledge class in a long time. ADPi and Alpha Gam are very close to total along now with us considering we all lost many members to graduation and alumnae status. Alpha Phi is decent in numbers and Kappa has decreased enormously in the past couple years. They will be going towards the same thing that my chapter did last fall with their Nationals.
I can say...as a commuter student (soon to living in the DG house) it was nice to have a place to go to between classes, work, etc. I was very involved in high school and knew that this would be the one thing to keep myself involved. I have held a VP in my chapter and two Panhellenic Exec positions (PR last semester....President this semester). Its been a wonderful experience....and I wouldn't change any of my decisions...however, I would like to see more people like myself get involved on campus whether they live on campus or commute.
The men have it a little easier than the women. Their houses hold more members than the women (the most in our houses range from 4-16, the guys range from 10-30...i think) and there are also 11 fraternities compared to our 5 sororities.
In order to recruit more people, we have been trying to get out to more incoming freshman during orientation and by sending out fliers in the mail. Our PR chair (Panhel) has been working so hard in the past month, considering she just got the position in the middle of May since I moved up to Pres. So.....here's to crossing my fingers for a successful recruitment!!

Wow, no on lives on campus huh? That is really a commuter campus. But I agree with what Hannahgirl said. It is a good way to meat people. I also think it weeds out the people who do not want to work as much for your org and school, because it was not handed to them already as a great system with lots of peole and support.

My campus is mostly commuter. The school is attempting to move away from that image and build a strong campus life but it's an uphill battle.

Commuter campuses oftentimes are more supportive of their Greeks in my experience than your larger schools. We're some of the only people interested in giving back! That's why ALL of the Student Senate Officers that I know of and most of your student Government is Greek.

We're involved in just about anything that anyone cares about because we care! There's definitely a good side of the coin that doesn't get talked about much. At least at my school.

Knowing your school, I feel your pain! Many of the students don't live nearby either so no one really wants to hang around. Two of my good friends were Phi Sigs there a while back and they had the same concerns you do.

my school, Cleveland State University, is a commuter school. nearly 90% commutes from various parts of the greater cleveland area. the greek system is pretty strong but needs a lot of work. the two greek houses that we have on campus is Tau Kappa Epsilon and Sigma Tau Gamma(my group). we have one Dormitory, But the school is trying to have another dorm build right now.

Good! Take UM down a peg or two! The Canes have run this city for long enough! What's your mascot?

And on the subject of commuter campuses, usually mostly freshmen live on campus and yes, it's a "once in a lifetime" type of experience, but the rest of your college years you never hang out in the dorms, anyway ( I lived in a suite on campus for 6 weeks in the summer before freshman year, and it was definitely enough!)

As for Greeks not having houses, I've read others' posts about how it doesn't matter at all if they don't have a house...how about those off-campus parties that take place in regular houses that are known as a particular fraternity's house? Those houses feel every bit as much like regular fraternity houses as the real thing. And I know many times brothers and sisters will live together in apartments and houses...when my chapter first recolonized they bought out a wing of one of the apartment complexes.

TV makes dorm life seem really cool...huge spacious rooms (like in Felicity) and your roomates and floormates who become lifelong friends. In reality you have a teeny weeny living space (this is my experience, not everyone's), psychotic roomates who drive you crazy, you have to carry your darn laundry three flights down, and you've gotta eat CAMPUS FOOD or live on Easy Mac and Ramen.

Don't get me wrong, I love the atmosphere of my campus and towards the end of last semester I could be found in any of my friends' dorms more than my own apartment, but don't feel bad because you can't have the "typical" college experience. TV and movies have idealized it.