W&L received two substantial alumni donations in '07, the larger being $100 million. That may have facilitated the 6th house being built on spec, so to speak. :)

That's true too. I think the major issue was just getting it on the agenda for the administration. They were going to be supportive but the first time around for whatever reason they weren't aware of the need until long after they should have been notified.

I think they're about to start a big capital campaign--there's already the Lenfest matching campaign going on now, but in the back of my mind I'm convinced that they're still gearing up for another one. Not sure.

if the house wasn't ready in january, do you think that would significantly hurt the new chapter during it's first year?

with a campus that is 80% greek i would imagine that is something that is very important?

though I'm sure they wouldn't have opened the campus for expansion again if they knew it really was important and it wasn't going to be ready for when recruitment began??

Here's my take on it. And this is said having no knowledge of when the new house is to be finished.

The reason that expansion never happened when there were presentations in 2005 was due to not having a house in the works. The groups realized that a suite of rooms in Gaines or even an unoccupied fraternity house would be in no way comparable to the current sorority houses.

I believe that if they did recruitment in January 2009 with assurance that the house would be open by September 2009 there would be no ill effect. The new members would not have a central spot to gather but other than that there wouldn't be a huge difference in the new member experience since freshmen at W&L don't eat or live in the houses. Where the disadvantage would be is if the house were NOT ready by September 2009. Since all upperclassmen eat their meals at the Greek houses, that is a HUGE attraction for new members--to have a place to eat lunch. Also most of the sorority houses are occupied by predominantly freshmen. W&L has a two-year housing requirement, and the sorority houses count as "on-campus," so they're pretty much the best housing a sophomore can get. This is another huge attraction...

that's just my $.02.

Congratulations ladies! W&L is a great Greek school!

About not having a house, I think that as long as PNMs see that a house is being built, they should be fine. At most schools, freshmen/NMs do not live in the house, so it's not like PNMs would be missing out on living in the house.

Besides, suppose the house were ready January 09. That would be one semester where the house would serve as nothing but a meeting place unless ADPi can buy all of the colony members out of their housing contracts.

If ground is being broken now, a year and a half should be enough time to finish the house, in time for September 09, right? The colonizing class would be able to move in for their first formal recruitment.