Houses! who doesn't have one?
 

Just how many frats out there don't have their own house? Do you have one, why or why not?


My chapter has a section of the dorms allocated to us. It's ghetto. The only other greek housing on campus is also school sponsored, and is at the level of appartments.
What's it like at your school?

And besides, How much do you need a house, is all you need is a place to call your own?

The only fraternity here that has a house is Lambda Chi Alpha.. it's not a big mansion, but they are working on their house right now.. and their lodge is the most fun place to get together. Their house was build *way back in the day* by brothers.

None of the other GLO's have houses here.. mainly because the school won't try for a Fraternity Row.. and because of extremely limited funds.. unfortunately we don't have thousands of dollars to play around with like most fraternities/sororities

Sad to say, all GLO's on URG campus have no houses. :( Well, lemme take that back, 1 GLO (Alpha Sigma Phi) have a house, but it was given to them by a new member's uncle. He works for the Bob Evans corporation (yeah, the restaurant) and since they had an extra house out on one of their hundreds of acres, they just kinda gave it to them. *shrugs*
On a side note : They won't even give dorm floors to greeks, as you can tell, it's a very anti-greek school. :( All they gave them was a picnic table and a really rigid rush period. :mad:

My school lets the guys have houses but the girls can't have them. All they get is a dorm..on the school's terms. If I've heard that if 1 wants to move out, they all have to go. For a lot of members, it too much trouble trying to find a parking space for a 10 am class.

Well we can't have houses either...from what I have been told its because of a San Antonio law...because if there is more that 5 girls (sorority) living together then its considered a whore house...something like that...not to sure. But it stinks.

Ronnie

If you went out and got a house do you think the authorities would try to enforce that law. Their are a million old laws on the books that are overlooked because they are obsolete. Law makers never got around to changing them but they dont enforce them.

Well even though my sorority house is not a mansion or worth a lot of money(see other thread) I am lucky to have gotten to live in a soroirty house since there are many who don't have this opportunity even other ASA chapters.

At Old Dominion University, we don't have houses either. Alpha Xi Delta has a house, but they were "grandfathered" in under the same law that many saying more than 5 women it is a brothel. (Another sorority had a house, bu t is no longer on campus. :( )

I believe Theta Chi has a house, but doesn't use it for much since no alcohol is allowed. I may be wrong. ;)

There is talk of adding a Greek Row or even adding sorority floors to a new dorm that is being added behind our new Convocation Center, where the basketball games are held. But I won't see it happen before I graduate. :mad:

Our fraternity row move-in is being postponed a couple weeks. Most of the 8 houses moving into the row had horrible houses before that. one was a run down apartment building, most were residential houses turned into fraternity houses, and my house was a frat house for 20 years, and it's really run down.

The soroities on the other hand have MANSIONS compared to us. The best is Theta, but it's weird to see that on some campuses both Fraternities and sororities have these nice looking mansions. It'd be nice, but hey, we're happy with the houses we have.

Even AGO and ADX have houses.

Same Here
 

Hi Ronnie,

That's the rumor around here as well, except it's for 6 girls. My goal for the summer was to do research on that and get the facts. I haven't gotten around to it though :rolleyes:

-Obi

There are three fraternities/Sororities at the University of Guelph. Delta Upsilon, Pi Beta Phi and Omega Tau Sigma (The Veterinary fraternity).
OTS was the first greek letter organization at UofG and was the first to have a house. UofG officially became the university in 1964 after the merging of OAC, OVC and McDonald Hall (the women's college). The city then placed a bylaw banning fraternity houses so Pi Beta Phi and Delta Upsilon are without one. OTS was allowed to keep their house because they were in place before the bylaw.

Emily

My chapter has never had a house. Mainly this is because Panhel stipulated that the order that sororities would be allowed to get houses would be based on date of charter, and AEPhi is the newest sorority on campus. I preferred it that way... I got to form ties with both my sisters and my dorm floormates. :)

We don't have a greek row but a few of the fraternities have houses... i belive Sig Ep, Theta Chi, Kappa Sig and a few others have houses. The thing is that they are all at least 15 minutes away from campus. A few in the Downtown area where it's not so great. Lambda Chi had a house but it got condemned and I am pretty sure the rats weren't even safe to live there. It was pretty bad. Unfortunate because they just put in a new floor a couple years ago. I think the only sorority to have a house is A Phi... but it's "unofficial" and the city won't let them display letters outside... zoning laws or something. And I don't know, but I keep seeing pics of Phi Sig with one on their website, but I have never heard of them actually owning a house.

While we have a house, if you call it that built 1895 is a Hazard to live in! We are in the process of trying to build a new one!

Many schools have antiquated ideas on Greek Housing because of the "many things" that go on in the dens of sin!



In many instantances, the Greeks Show why there should not be Greek Housing!

There have been many things tried such as Greek Courts, Na Dont Work! Greeks having their own houses which in many cases are a drain on the finances upon the Chapter! Floors of Sorms given to Chapters.

So what is the panacea for Greek Housing?

I wish I had the answer!

It would help if if the Organizations would show that they desearve it and are adult enough to abide by the rules and govern themselves to wit!

I had heard that here, too, but now they're building houses, so I have no clue what the whole story is... whether that's just an urban legend or not, I'm not sure.

Its gotta be an urban legend....

Were building new houses in 03-04, and we had our house inside the city limits from 1986-1995. Maybe its a thing about gals living together.... I dunno...

Lie
 

At some places it's a rumor I bet. At our school I found out there is a fraternity/sorority zoning classification and not just fraternities/sororities fall under it. I have no idea why anyone thought that, but it sounds like a rumor to me.

-Rudey
--Besides, what's wrong with a nice friendly neighborhood brothel?

I saw something on here about the first sorority house inside chicago city limits. Apparently chicago has some wierd zoning rules and the school didn't want to go through rezoning the property. But some women managed to petition the school and convince them to rezone. So maybe it is urban legend combined w/the school's laziness. i think that thread was called something like "first chicago sorority house" Good luck!

We have houses, but are all school owned. Phi Psi, Sig Chi and TKE all rent theirs, but we don't we get housekeeping instead. The greeks all built the houses way back in like 1940's i think in all 10 or 12 were built that the school still uses and hasn't torn down. But now we have 5 GLO's. oh well.
Tau Love!
Lil E

The correct term is actually "brothel". Its not an urban legend but an old law that many places had and people never got rid of them because dealing with the technicalities is probably a pain in the butt. I know that law exists in Michigan at least. Most sororities are able to have houses with more than 6+ girls as long as they have a housemother. For some reason, having a housemom makes the house not a 'brothel'...its another law...and i really don't know any details otherwise... anyone here pre-law or a history nut?

We don't have any campus recognized greek housing either....although we should in about two years. Over half of the fraternities have their own off campus houses though! It might not sound appealing, but we all like it:)

At Henderson State, (when I was there!), all 5 Fraternities had houses. 4 of them were originally 1 family residential houses. SigEp tore their house down and built a 3 story house of "apartments" for the guys. (Couple years ago, they lost their house and now the University owns it.) Currently, only 2 fraternities still have a house, though.

The sororities all signed agreements waaaay back that we would not pursue housing until 2000 or something like that. (HSU didn't want us to have houses anyway). Now they are talking about building sorority houses that will sleep 4 or 5 sisters each. HSU would own them and the sorority would rent them.

In one way, I'm glad we didn't have houses when I was there. It would stress me out to always be worrying about the upkeep and paying for the house. The year before I pledged, there were 2 dorms that were 2 stories each. 2 sororities would share each dorm, (one on either end) and had their own lobby and chapter room. They were great (but old), but then they were condemned and torn down. :(

Why are my posts so long??????:confused::D

None of the sororities on my campus have any because they are considered as HO HOUSES (brothels)! :rolleyes:

Up until year before last, we had a house a couple of blocks from campus. The deed restrictions in that neighborhood are designed for "single family dwellings" so there was a rule that no more than 3 people who are not related could live there or something. But there were 4 bedrooms...so 4 people lived there. In reality, more than 4 people stayed there most of the time, I know I stayed in the "house manager's" (the girl with the most seniority...she gets the master bed with her own bathroom...plus extra responsibility) room a LOT. She had bunk beds, so I had my bed linens, etc. over there so that I could stay whenever I needed to. Anyway, the landlord decided not to keep the house, so we were eventually unable to renew the lease, since he sold it to a family. At the same time, Greek Park was approved on my campus, so there was no sense in spending money on a house until the official greek housing is complete, which will be next fall. So currently, my collegiate chapter is without a house, but usually they have a house, and will have housing next year again.

Fraternities or sororities don't have houses here either. Sigma Chi had a house(and i was the last house manager) but we gave it up because it was off-campus and was costing us way too much money in rent and utilities. Before we build greek housing here we have to be on the master plan, and before that happens the university just built a new child day care center and now says they want to make marriage dorms, a new parking garage, and more regular dorms...then we can talk about being on the master plan. Plus UNF is on a nature preserve and allocating land is a pain in the butt cause you have to replace what you take and that costsmoney. Then the university has to pay for infastructure which will be a million+. People here think it will happen in the next 5 years,but in reality more like 10-15.

At Lock Haven U. (where I go to school), most of the fraternities and one of the sororities have a house. Three sororities (including mine) on campus don't have a house. We had a house until Sp. 2001, but lost it b/c of lack of interest in moving into the house.

Most of their members either live off campus or on campus.

Denison University took the fraternity houses in 1995. Its a long story, I wasnt around back then but from what I have heard it is an interesting story to say the least. We have a "lodge space" in the basement of our house that we rent from the school for chapter and but cannot live there. Every fraternity on our campus is like this except for DU and DX who do not even have a space to rent.

We heard that here in Pennsylvania, too. I heard it was considered a "Brothel." Meanwhile, I know many other schools in PA that have sorority houses... and I know of one sorority that's getting a real house at my school this year... I think it was just the school making an excuse not to spend money. :rolleyes:

Greek Housing is a luxuory as while we as Greeks try to Keep the cost of living down for our members it can also be a drain on the members of the chapter!

But I for one would not have it anyother way than to have our own houses as trying to build a new one next year!

I am in contact with a lot of Our Chapters around the Country and the differnet situations that they are in, it seems that the more that the Schools controll the house they control us!

If the Chapters are so small, they do not need a house! But if the Schools are not willing to work with us, some get Apartments and call it their Lodge House or What ever! BUT, They are together!

Being together is a big thing for us and do not forget it!:)

For quite a few years a lot of our chapters were switching houses left and right mostly b/c a lot of them aren't "Official" houses and just a bunch of ppl w/a lease and called "the house". We actually had 3 houses one year!! A lot of houses also got left b/c the houses themselves were in bad shape. Sig Tau, Lambda Chi and Sig Ep have all had to leave their houses b/c they got CONDEMMED!! Lambda Chi actually had asbestos all throughout their house!! Sig Tau and Lambda Chi have had new houses for a while now and Sig Ep just got a new house for this year. As for the gals, This year is at least the first year since I have been at EMU where all the National/International sororities will have a house. Our local Sigma Nu Phi, unfortunately is small so they can't really get one now. I think they will have an apartment tho, so at least it's a place to hang your hat! We just got a big nice house last year and I love it!! It used to be Delta Zeta's house so it was all Pink and Green when we moved in, but slowly it is getting Red Buff and Greenicized!!!

My sorority doesn't have a house either. In fact, our campus doesn't have a "greek row" or anything like that. There are 3 female organizations (2 local sororities - one is mine- and 1 female fraternity) and 4 fraternities. Only 3 of the four fraternities have houses (Sigma Chi, Phi Kappa Pi, and Phi Delta Theta...Zeta Psi doesn't have a house...but I know they're looking!)

We've been looking for a while now, but there's not too much free around Dalhousie's campus. When a few of our sisters were living together in an apt, we used their apt as an unofficial sorority "house"....we had our flag up in their place and all the sisters went there to hang out!:)

At my small, liberal arts school the fraternities used to have houses. The sororities have never had houses. We have a chapter room on the ground floor of a dorm, a communal kitchen, and archive/lounge space in the basement. Before WWII, the fraternities owned houses off-campus. In 1954, the school decided it wished to become more residential in nature. It persueded them to sell their houses and give the money to the school to build a Quad on campus. This was done in exchange for guaranteed occupancy of the houses, in perpetuity. Other campus organizations could apply for a one-year theme house contract. In 1998 the sororities applied for equal housing status under Title IX. This caused a mild uproar. Then the campus Christian organization (among other groups) raised the issue that if the fraternities and sororities were to be guaranteed housing, so should every other campus organization that wanted it. Our school formed a Task Force on Residence Life that investigated for several years and came back at the end of the 2000-2001 school year with the decision to crawl through one of several large loopholes in the original fraternity contracts and declare that no organization has guaranteed right to a group house. The fraternities consulted with their attorneys and realized that there was really nothing they could do. A new program was implemented to begin in the 2002-2003 school year. To find out what happened, check out my post in this thread.

The tricky part here is that my school is now a completely residential campus. You may only live off-campus if you:

1) live with family, are married, divorced, widowed, or have a child;

2) own a house (you personally, not your organization);

3) are student teaching;

4) are more than 4 years out of high school/over 25

5) have other special circumstances approved by the Dean of Residence Life and the financial aid department.

Therefore, the GLOs can't simply declare that we're going to build or buy houses off-campus and move into them. It doesn't work that way. By being a student at this university, you agree to abide by the residential campus arrangement.

So no, we don't have houses. At least not offically. But a girl can dream, can't she?

alot of the northern schools don't have houses.. which is kinda sucky :( but, being national, it kicks ass to visit other chapters who DO have houses!

At Northwest Missouri State University, sororities don't have houses. They say that in the beginning it was because of the "brothel" law, but now it is because we are waiting for everyone to have enough money to build before anyone starts building. We each have floors in the supposedly haunted sorority dorm though. Not having a house does have its advantages...lower dues! It would be nice to have a house, but there are girls that live off campus whose houses take the place of a sorority house. While sororites don't have houses, fraternities at Northwest do. Actually 3 of them have rebuilt in the past 4 years, with two of the houses being mansionlike for Maryville.

wow, I'm impressed by the feedback I got on this. I figured most people would be ashamed to admit their frat/sorotity has a ghetto housing arrangement. It makes us all feel better to know that we're not alone!

I think the "brothel" rules are kind of interesting. I never heard of them before.

I wonder though if this no-housing thing is a trend that's more just in the northeast or if it's like that everywhere. It is totally awesome to visit other chapters with nice houses. Our Beta chapter has a HOT house that I stop by all the time. We try to make do with our dorm-based house as well as we can; we can certainly accomadate brothers stopping by but it's not the same. *sigh

anyways thanks for the replies keep postin', I'll keep checkin' up.

At UMass, all the sororities but AEPhi have houses. The sorority houses are BEAUTIFUL- big kitchens and common rooms, nice bedrooms. There are ten fraternities with houses. All but ours and SigEp's are kinda gross- they're all old farmhouses that were converted in the 60's. But they are all together- all but three Greek houses are either right on or just off of North Pleasant St., which is the main street through town.

AEPhi has a dorm floor to itself. And the fraternities without official houses usually rent a smallish house close to the row for themselves. So it all works out.

At my campus, there are only two fraternities that have a house. The Sig Eps have an old school that has been converted into a house and is absolutely huge! Unfortunately it is about two miles from campus, and they have a hard time keeping it filled. Alpha Phi Alpha is the only group that actually has a house on campus. They have our old President's House, which sounds more impressive than it is. Its just a 50's ranch that holds about eight people. It has a great setting on the lake though.

The city has also enacted zoning ordinances that basically prohibit any type of fraternity/sorority housing in city limits. The Sig Eps are grandfathered in, but the city tried to screw them over when they got the school. Their old house was the oldest brick building in the state of Illinois (built in 1820). The city received a grant from the State to purchase, restore, and turn the house into a museum. The city then worked out a deal to let the Sig Eps have the school. The school though, had been the elementary school for the African-American community when the schools were segregated. It is the only segregated school building left in Madison County, so the NAACP and the Urban League wanted to turn it into a community/cultural center. The city basically ticked these groups off when they let the Sig Eps take possession. However, the city dragged the building and occupancy permit stage out forever, so the chapter didn't get to actually move in until almost a year after the initial projected occupancy date. The city was hoping that the chapter would default on its mortgage and then the house could be turned into the community/cultural center. Then the city would have had a win-win situation. A new house museum paid for with state money, a new community center, and no annoying fraternity house to bother with.

There is a lot of interest from the students for Greek housing on campus, but virtually none from our upperlevel administrators. I know the issue has been brought up at our University's Chancellor's Council, and was soundly rejected by the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellors. My first year as Greek Adviser at SIUE, we even had a property development company, owned by one of the wealthiest alumni and benefactors of the University, present a proposal to build, maintain, and manage Greek Housing on campus at no cost to the University (only the land, of which we have plenty of 2,660 acres, second largest campus in the country!). I was the only person at the meeting in favor of it :( I have said that Greek Housing would actually make my job easier (it is so hard getting people together for meetings, etc.), and our Director of Admissions has actually said that the lack of Greek Housing is hurting admissions, because when prospective students visit campus, they want to know where the fraternity/sorority houses are. We have been primarily a commuter school,(although nearly 30% total, and almost 50% of freshmen live on campus) and to prospective students it just says that there isn't any campus life and nothing to do on the weekends.

There are A LOT of schools that have built or are building Greek Housing on campus. It seems to be the big trend nationally right now...

I just wish my campus would get it.