Too bad no one believes you. Your assurances don't mean squat.

Again, cite your source. Oh that's right, you can't.

Oh, my bad. I didn't stop to think that if no sororities in Detroit have houses, the reason can only be a brothel law. I have certainly been put in my place. :rolleyes:

Then it ought to be a simple matter for you to cite and/or quote the ordinance. But like OTW, I'm betting you can't.

My alma mater (Washington University in St. Louis) regularly fed this myth to incoming freshmen, but a Theta who graduated the year before I did debunked this myth to the Panhellenic community and revealed the real reason: an alumna had donated money to the university with the stipulation that while it was being used to build/maintain the building named in her memory, sororities could only have suites in her building and no residential houses. At that time the sororities discussed building houses but found there wasn't enough interest in our chapters to pursue it.

That's very interesting. SLU and UMSL believed the myth too, although I think UMSL helped debunk it by the creation of their new sorority houses in the past few years (although even they're not in the "city" so I'm sure it lives on).

tHE bROTHEL LAW
 

I just wanted to comment on this because I go to University of Nevada and our wack counterpart UNLV does still adhere to the brothel law. It is not a myth or a rumor. No sororities or frats have official houses because there is still a brothel law in nevada and UNLV and UNR are not in cities that allow brothels.

Cite your source, please.

Well Nevada is the only, or one of a few US states that allows prostitution in certain cities or something like that. Bunny Ranch anyone?

And yea this rumor is perpetuated for UCSD...in case you don't know about La Jolla, CA it's your typical rich neighborhood...so no brothels ever!

Please give us the exact legislation. Not what you've herd, what other have said, blah blah blah. Show us where is it in the law book?

Why would a brothel law prevent fraternity houses?

Unless you can actually cite a statute or ordinance, I'm calling it a myth.

One more time . . .
 

Zoning laws - often restrict the number of unrelated persons who can live in a single family dwelling. They often also will not allow dwellings which allow more than a certain number of people to live in them in certain areas of the city/county. The specific use is often dictated - i.e., commercial vs. residential. Sometimes fraternity and sorority houses are not built at a certain university because of ZONING LAWS.

Brothel laws - an urban legend that will not die. If you feel your community has a brothel law, please post the relevant legal citation. We'd love to see it. Really.

No doubt that the brothel law isn't what prevents Greek housing, but you guys know that Nevada really does have brothel laws, right?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_in_Nevada

Have you actually READ that article? It reads like a review for a hotel, only it's reviewing brothels instead. Every section says "reference needed", and no sources or legistlation are actually cited in the article.

Are you under the impression that they are all illegal as they are elsewhere?

Perhaps you should have clicked on this link http://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/NRS-2...l#NRS244Sec345.

It appears to be a link to the state code there in the wiki article, and hey, what da ya know, it mentions how you can legally seek license for a house of prostitution. What is it that you thought brothels were?

No. I know they're legal. I just don't think bringing up a Wiki article is helping the cause.

I know what a brothel is.

As far as I know, in 49 of 50 states, we can unequivocally say there are no brothel laws. In one state, it helps the cause to say, "In Nevada, there are no brothel laws that impede Greek housing" instead because they really do have laws about where brothels can and can't be located. Some poor gullible kid who might be willing to believe the typical brothel definition rule has even more reason to accept it as truth because he or she knows Nevada is not like the other states.

(I never understood the brothel law idea to begin with since women's dorms would have also fit the same definition it seems to me. I'm also not buying the number of "an important donor gave ookazillion dollars as long as they never had Greek housing for women" stories out there. But I'm not interested in debunking them one by one.

Seems like that to me, too.

I'm really amazed by the "logic" that because there are no sorority (or fraternity) houses at a given school there must be a so called brothel law.

As SWTXBelle says, if laws restricting numbers of people in a house are almost certainly zoning laws.

Of course in some cases the effect may be the same.

Attempting to contact a District Court Judge of Nevada to get the real deal!

More later if and when He gets back to me!

Have a cool day!

So anyone able to back up their claim of Nevada outlawing greek housing due to prostitution and brothels?

Here's a freebie that took about two minutes on the Nevada State website.

http://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-2...l#NRS244Sec345

http://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-3...l#NRS361Sec100

Gee, maybe I should get a job with Snopes.

For the lazy...
Clearly not illegal to have them or they wouldn't be mentioned.

And the other law is for licensure of houses of prostitution, suggesting that you're not one unless you're licensed as one (or illegally acting as one without a license.) No sorority house is going to fall under those guidelines

A post that makes excellent sense and I wish some would heed it!;)

This is the exact reason I've been told my sorority cannot have a house... I wonder if there's anyway to truly turn it around and establish one...

Turn what around??? Establish a brothel law or a chapter house?

And confusion reigns . . .
 

In an attempt at clarification:

1.) There are, for example in Nevada, laws which legalize and regulate brothels. Those are not the laws we are referring to in this thread.

2.) There are rumoured to be laws which restrict single-sex dwellings in an attempt to prohibit brothels. These are the laws referred to as "brothel laws" for the purposes of discussing Greek housing.

3.) We have yet to see a citation of a "brothel law" which would explain why sorority (or fraternity) houses are not allowed. If you have one, please post.

4.) If your campus does not have Greek housing, odds are it is because of zoning laws which have little or nothing to do with the sex industry. Rather than rely on heresay, check into your community and county zoning laws. It may also simply be a decision on the part of your campus. DO YOUR RESEARCH - GET THE FACTS. You may be able to change whatever is preventing GLOs from having houses.

This has been a public service announcement. Now back to your regular programming.

To clarify an above post, there are sorority houses at UNR. Don't know where anyone got the idea that there aren't any on that campus. We, Delta Gamma, has one as do several others - they are more or less across the street from us.

Isn't this an NPC rule? The All or None mantra?

No.

Actually, I'm wrong. Not really surprising. Apparently when a system is going from no one having housing to having it, the NPC does help develop a house agreement for the campus. I was just thinking of the odd cases in which a group joins an existing system.

I guess I was misinformed. It must just be an agreement between our campuses NPC orgs.

I don't have all the NPC rules, but when new groups come on campus, they have to make plans to build houses or whatever, so not all groups are housed necessarily.

It wouldn't surprise me though if the general preference when starting Greek housing for the NPC groups is that they try to make sure all the groups are ready. The NPC does seem to like a level playing field.

Maybe someone else knows the real policies.

I was told (and believed) this myth up until this moment. I'm shocked AND I feel stupid! And now I also feel jipped! They're starting to get dorms on my campus and I'm sure someday they'll have houses - no fair! My boyf, a Delta Tau Delta at UGA had a pretty sweet house (it's even in a local Krystal commercial) and I'm super jealous! :mad:

Clean out your P M box.

Tried to reply, but unable to!:)

Here at Gettysburg, i was told by a tour guide that that was the reason we didnt have sorority houses. i found out it was because the town changed the zoning laws essentially making it impossible to own private dormitory style housing off campus.

Ha ha, I've seen the commercial you're talking about, and I was wondering whose house that was.

My sister went to West Georgia for two semesters and swears that the reason they don't have Greek housing is the brothel law. I tried to explain to her that this rumor is prevalent on pretty much every college campus that has Greek life without Greek housing, but she stubbornly swears that in their case, it's real. :rolleyes: Oh well.

we have neither fraternity or sorority houses on Tarleton State's campus due to city ordinances

UNT Sorority Row
 

Texas Princess,

The "Brothel Law" did apply at UNT for many years. Prior to Sorority Row most of the Sororities used to meet in Chapter Suites at the bottom level of the College Inn Dormitory building on Monday evenings. I used to live upstairs from Chi Omega :). The reason that UNT moved forward with Sorority Row was that they challenged and appealed the legal stipulations that were outdated and old. TWU could probably do the same but I know that the greek system there is very small. Not sure if that would make a difference or not.

Fraternally,

Boodleboy

At the University of Tenn the girs dont have houses they have there own dorms, they are getting townhouses built for them dont know when that will happen though

I know in my hometown the "brothel law" is why there are no sorority houses. At least, that's what the students are told. On my campus, we don't have houses for more practical reasons.

Who tells them this? The city? The administration? Is it written anywhere, or is it one of those urban legends?

The brothel law is the RUMOR for why you don't have houses.

Ummmm, 'cause as this thread says over and over, it isn't true?