"Houses" v. "Chapters" / "Sororities"
 

I know it's generally considered incorrect to refer to chapters on a campus as "houses" (e.g., "the other houses are doing X..." or "what house did you join?") for a number of reasons, but try as panhell did during recruitment to have everyone call them "chapters," everyone at my alma marter still said "houses," if just due to force of habit. I think part of it is that all of the current chapters at my alma marter are housed and have been in their current houses for at least 60-ish years (some for more than 90 years), so ABC's house is very much "the ABC house," historically. That, and most, if not all, of the houses were built specifically to house their current chapter.

I'm curious as to what people say/said at other campuses, particularly those with at least some housed chapters, and if chapters are ever called "houses" even at schools without sorority houses (I don't really see why they would be, but who knows?).

We were not housed and were not called houses. We called ourselves chapters/ sororities. We did have a sorority dorm and each chapter had a wing that was decorated in our sorority colors, etc. We had a chapter room, kitchen, office, community bathroom and ritual closet. About 10 rooms housing two women each were on the halls on the bottom floors (housing AOII and Phi Mu.) I don't know if KD and Sigma Kappa had as many rooms.


When I was advising at Towson, I did hear people referring to the chapters as "houses" even though they were not housed in any way. I think this probably is related to UMD being nearby where all the chapters are housed. I could be wrong, though. Where is seeingstars?

We call them houses on my campus too. We have meeting houses, but there is no living space connected to them.

Interestingly, my cousin's chapter has a single room in a sorority "building" of sorts- and consequently, she refers to things as "in the room" when referring to things that go on in her chapter. That one has always rung odd to my ear.

Pitt has one sorority house (now, they used to have two), and the rest either have a floor in Amos Hall (the sorority dorm) or a suite in a nearby dorm.

When I was there, we called all of the sororities "chapters". Now, they call all of them "houses". I think the change may have started as wishful thinking, but since Pitt completely remodeled the sorority dorm, it's wonderful.

Hope they also got a new elevator! That thing was a death trap!

The Kappas still have their house, right?

Yup, that's the one. When Kappa Alpha Theta left campus, they gave up the house.

It's weird. One of my good friends was their "house mom" when she was in grad school - on the weekends that she needed to be out of town I usually stayed as the "designated security alarm setter and fire alarm puller."

Calling chapters "houses" is a pet peeve of mine. I don't know why it bothers me so much, but it does :) Just one of those things.

Because it is in effect saying that the physical structure is the most important part of the chapter, or that the chapter would not exist without the physical structure, neither of which are the truth.

We said:
"What fraternity is he in?"
"I had 3 chapters left on pref night."
"ASA is the best sorority."
"Let's go to the party at the Delta Chi house."

Most fraternities and sororities had off-campus houses with letters on them.

I thought it was being rented by the University. I think it's a multi-cultural house now. It was such a big deal to share a duplex with KKG, I can't see them giving it up completely - but it certainly could have been.

Does Kappa not fill it anymore? When I was there, Kappa members filled both sides of it.

That's how we used it also. I thought maybe I was overly sensitive to calling them "houses" because we were unhoused on my campus most of the time. But you're right, a house is a physical place, a chapter is a group of women/men.

ETA: We were even asked by some snobby girls from a different chapter of AGD whether we were "still homeless" when we ran into them while shopping (wearing letters). Yeah, homeless.. right.

Ohio State calls them houses. The non-housed school that I work with calls them houses or sororities. They never use chapter.

At my college, it's still casually referred to as "houses" even though there's been a significant effort in progress to phase it out, and some members always say "chapters".

This is partially due to a particular Greek Life advisor that raises a huge row every time someone says "house" outside the context of the physical place. (eg. it's OK to say: Which house is the event at?, but not: Which houses are participating in this event?)

At my school, when I rushed, the terms "house", "fraternity", and "chapter" were used pretty much interchangeably for fraternities and independent living groups*. Sororities were generally referred to as sororities or chapters, as only one out of five sororities actually had a physical house - although our chosen welcome chant on Bid Day refers to the "house of AEPhi".

* ILGs are local organizations. Most are co-ed but one is open only to women. All ILGs own houses.

At Illinois we always said house. It wasn't disrespectful in any way - it was just campus culture.

We all had houses, but back in the day both sororities and fraternities on my campus were referred to as "groups." i.e. "What group are you in?" or "That's a great group." Odd, now that I think about it.

You were there before me, right? I feel like they made a conscious effort to change over to "chapter" when I was a sophomore...around the same time we had to stop using the word "rush".

They may have tried to push chapter, but it doesn't seem as though it was successful. Everyone used "house" when I was there ('06-'10).

What is the former Theta house being used for?

Good to see you, KR! The last I heard, the Theta house was being used for multi-cultural housing. My understanding is that Theta wouldn't sell, in hopes that they will be back fairly soon. I have to stress that this is second hand info, though.

Pitt renting from somebody else - how surreal is that?