No Houses!
 

My school has really, really nice frat houses, but no sorority houses--they just stay in dorms or in apartments, and they meet in a particular building once a week. Apparently we're supposed to go through Rush with the sisters of all the dif. sororities in the same building. **I wonder how they'll work this out with the different parties each night and such???** At least it will save some walking! LOL! I think they are working on getting sorority houses in the next few years.

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***Tinkerbell***

~~~Don't worry, be happy!~~~

Hey, that sounds exactly like it is at my school! Except we have a dorm for sorority women to live in. Each sorority has its own floor. Its wierd though, bc independents can live in it too, and I just found out they placed me in the ZTA hall! I'm going through rush in the fall as a freshman and I can't help but wonder what kind of effect that will have on everything. But the rush parties are supposed to be all around campus, in designated areas that the sororities use for activities and stuff during the year. In our rush booklet they warn us about how we'll walk to parties rain or shine, and that we'd better bring an umbrella! There's talk about getting sorority houses within the next few years though, and it will be good bc by that time I'll be a JR or SR, and probably be one of the first ones to live there (for whichever one I get in)! I'm really excited. When is your rush? Ours is Labor Day weekend.

Our school doesn't have houses either, mostly because they don't allow a greek row or anything. But, I think some of the frats have houses, so that's where the parties must be!

My school doesn't have sorority houses either, and no frat houses that are actually affiliated at all with the school. There is a dorm reserved for the sororities, and we all have our chapter rooms on our floor. So for recruitment, it's really easy for everyone to get around.

orchid2- I don't know how it is at your school, but recruitment is really strict here. There was a girl who lived on a sorority hall but was not a member of a sorority. She had a really rough time during recruitment because she couldn't go out in the hall, and she couldn't have any guests in her room (you won't have to worry about that stuff since you'll be going through recruitment though). Also, because of strict silence, it may be kind of weird living with people who technically aren't supposed to talk to you. I don't know from experience what it's like to have a non-Greek who is going through recruitment living on our hall, but we will have one this fall so it'll be interesting to see how it turns out! http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif

Tinkerbell-
I don't know if it's the same for everyone else, but they just don't allow sorority houses anywhere in Tennessee. It dates back to some old law that says, basically, that sorority houses are "whore" houses. That's the reason that there are no sorority houses anywhere in Tennessee on campus. My sister went to UT Knoxville, and the sororities there were housed in a dorm, and she told me that there was that old-and I do mean old law that says that. That's just what I've always heard. http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif

I imagine you can just live with the wrong sorority for a year or semester, or whenever an opening becomes available for your sorority's hall. We have RA's on each floor that do not belong to any of the sororities on that particular floor, but they do belong to sororities. And it really isn't too awkward. The sororities just don't want you to be walking around in the hall while they're doing certain ceremonies and stuff.

That's ridiculous--the "old law that says sorority houses are whore houses in Tennessee"! I swear, (nothing against those of you who grew up in the South--I've only lived here 3 years), sometimes Southern ethics don't make any sense.
Anyhow, somehow I guess we're bypassing that law because I was told that in a couple of years they are going to build some sorority houses. Oh, well.
Now what's this thing about having to be quiet on certain floors? I'm not sure I understand this, but say my roommate is not rushing, am I not allowed to talk to her, or what? Because that would be pretty rude of me.

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***Tinkerbell***

~~~Don't worry, be happy!~~~

I don't understand the whole being quite on certain floors thing. I think all sororities have the rule where you can't talk to anyone in a sorority during rush, and you can't talk to Anybody about rush. That goes for your roommate. But that doesn't mean you can't talk to your roommmate about other things. That's how it is at my school anyways http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif

Our school doesn't have houses either. We have no assigned living for sororities. So the week of rush each chapter gets a "room" in the student center. Each night the ladies go to these rooms for the party. We have four sororities. First night all four parties, second night all four again, third night three, pref night two.

Our school has our first round of parties in one building. It's really easy for rushees to get around, because they only have one building to deal with. But, my campus has houses, and our other parties are there. Depends on how you look at it, when you're running from house to house or from floor to floor http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif

We don't have houses, either, because of that same law! The only way to get around it, from our research, is to have a house on University housing, and have it "supervised" by the school. We fought our city council forever, and our dean (who is greek) decided if the University supervises the building, nothing can be done about it, because it would be just like a dorm. If we get houses, basically all the school would do is say they supervised them, just so that we could have them. Our dean has gone out of his way to try and provide for our greek system- from what I hear about other schools trying to shut greeks out, we are really lucky. Now, the only thing holding us back is the school imposed rule that no sorority can have a house untill all can afford them. We have a huge fund set up, and so does AGD, but Phi Mu is pretty new and struggling, so we have to wait for them to get more $.
We have rush partys in seperate ballrooms in the student center. It's great for the rushees, because its basically all in one place, but it gets really rowdy with only a wall seperating the rooms when we all start singing and chanting.

In the Flame,
Missy

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"To the world I promise temperance and insight and courage...."

"Don't you think that life would be awfully boring, if the good times were all that we had?" -Pat Green

At my school, some sororities are housed, some aren't. We held rush in various function rooms of the student center - even the sororities with houses. During informal night, the sororities with houses were allowed to bring PNM's over and give them tours of the house etc. while the unhoused sororities typically took people out for ice cream, walking tours of the city, etc. Since the vast majority of rush parties were in the student center, and freshmen live in the dorms regardless, the housed sororities didn't have much of an advantage over the unhoused ones.

My school does not provide sorority housing either--each chapter has a floor of a dorm. In the past, we've had freshmen live on our floor, and it's not a problem at all. Some rushed and joined other houses, and it was no big deal. Since it's a dorm atmosphere, we treated each other like how you treat any of your floormates--with courtesy. The independents were welcome to use our kitchen and TV room. So, for you women assigned to sorority floors--don't sweat it!

Hey Localsororities, They have a policy where the girls can move after 3 weeks. So if I pledge XYZ, I get to move to their floor. Or I could just stay on ZTA's hall, depending on the circumstances. I imagine I'll want to live with my sisters though!

A lot of the freshmen girls who applied to live in Sparkman (the name of that dorm) ended up on ZTA and AOTT's floors, so I don't know what in the world is going on. I have a friend who is a ZTA and she told me that she was trying to get into the hall...surely they would have to make exceptions for members, you know? Rush is definitely going to be interesting!

Thanks for all the input, guys. Something a little off-subject, but not really: I (hopefully) will find out who my roommate is supposed to be in a couple of weeks. I'm really nervous about it. I hope it is someone I can get along with. My worst nightmare is that the person will be really mean and psychotic or something LOL. I know I'm probably just being paranoid.
On the form where it asks preferences for roommates, it asks whether you'll be rushing or not, and of course I put yes. I hope my roommate will be, because it will make it easier to vent about things. Otherwise, I'll feel like I'm shutting her out due to all the rules about not discussing rush or pledge stuff with other people and such.

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***Tinkerbell***

~~~Don't worry, be happy!~~~

At my university, all fraternities and sororities has a house, but in order to keep things as fair as possible for rush, we have formal recruitment in a seperate building with multiple rooms for all of us to be in! I enjoy this since I beleive that some rushees may judge a partilcular sorority by how nice or rich looking their house is!

But doesn't it sorta make sense to judge the house also? Don't get me wrong, I don't think it should be your best reason for choosing one sorority or another (as a matter of fact, I think it should be a very tiny factor to consider) but you are going to be living there. Just something I was wondering.

My 2 centts, At PSU Kansas all Greek orgs. have houses. William-Jewell, all of the Fraternitys have new multi-million $ houses but the Soros live in dorms and each has a seperate area.
C Mo U has a Octo-plex where the Frat.s live with a comon kitchen facility! It is nutty and when I ran into one of the guys they were trying to build a housing fund to get own house! I was not in it but drove by it god what a mess!!!!
U Mo KC has a house but becaus of U rules they can hve only 4 men per address. They are in an old house and have two intrances with two address'.
PSU wanted to build a Greek Row but under their thumb! Is stupid since most of us are on Broadway across from the school! Probably is why they want us hidden!
Runs S0, t0 No AGD, LXA, ASA, SX, Pike, and across the street from the LXA house the SPE. Only 2 are not along that strech of road!

It is different all over but to call the Soroity House Whore Houses is LUDICRISE and DAMN DUMB!!!!!! Typical Govt. BS!!!!!!

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Tom Earp LX Z#1
Pittsburg State U. (Kansas)

If you are living with a bunch of girls you feel uncomfortable with, it doesn't matter if you are living in the Taj Mahal. The main things you should judge are whether it is clean and safe.

I definitely don't agree with someone picking one group of girls over another just because they have a nice house. But it probably would be helpful to see if the house is clean, and to observe if the sisters respect the place they live. Even if you love the girls, it might be hard to live in a pig stye.

First, to clear up the Tennessee law thing, apparently it's like if a certain number of women live together in a house (say 25 girls or something), then the house is considered a brothel. I think SC has the same law, but we have sorority houses, and USC is in the process of building a Greek Village.

Second, Tinkerbell, don't fret too much about who your roommate will be. You or she can always move out. I lived with a dirty hippie who didn't shower, didn't flush, wore patchouli oil, and never did laundry. One day I walked in and she was snorting coke!!! She was gone by the end of the semester.

As far as rush goes, only the first round of parties is held in the sorority houses. The rest of the week, the parties are held in the conference center on campus. Our houses are old and the rooms are small. It would be very difficult to get all 120 sisters and rushees in one room!

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"Seek the noblest."
Zeta Love! <3

Hey!!!! I'm going to go to MTSU too but Im not going till Jan. Would it be better for me to wait till next fall to rush or should I rush in the spring? I heard that it is better to rush your sophmore year? I don't know but I also have friends in a few sororities and am I not alloud to talk to them while rushing? I don't know this all excites me and makes me a bit nervous

We also dont have houses at my school, so our parties were at different places like student center on different floors, and our pref party was in the banquet room. It all actually turned out very well. And if you were on a different floor, then after pledging if you wanted to move you could as long as there was room!!

My school doesn't have houses either. Since we live in the city (Boston) it is difficult and expensive! I know up until the early 1970's my sosority had a house, but we no longer do.
There is supposed to be a "brothel law" in MA, but I don't know if it is re-enforced.
But some sisters or brothers all live in what is known as a "suite" which is 4-6 dorm rooms with a common room connecting them all or some will all going in on an apartment and that will be known as the "house"
Either way, it doesn't effect greek life at our school much.

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"Once a Kappa, Always a Kappa" ...Kappa Gamma Chi
Emerson College Boston, MA


[This message has been edited by Vixenradio (edited August 07, 2001).]