Is a house necessary?
 

I tried searching and nothing came up, so forgive me if this has already been covered!

Do you think it is necessary for a sorority chapter, on a large greek campus (14 sororities), to have a house? Take into consideration that every other chapter on campus has a house - and I'm talking about large beautiful houses that sleep 40+. Is a house necessary to (and I hate to use this word) compete with the other houses - and is it death not to have one? Has anyone at a large university experienced this?

I ask because this fall a group colonized on campus and I was talking to one of the girls who had been working for the past year to bring them here. I asked her if their nationals were planning on building a house and where were they thinking of building or if maybe there were renting one of the old unused houses on fraternity circle? She told me that their nationals had no intentions of building them a house and that maybe 5 girls would rent out a regular house next year and use that for a chapter house.

Honestly, I would love to see this group succeed, but when she told me this I couldn't help but think, oh gosh, thats going to be the death of them.

What do you think? Is a house necessary in a case like this, when every other chapter has a big, beautiful house - or is it just something extra. Be honest :)

I hate to say it but I do believe that it is death for that sorority. I go to school like the one described and I cannot imagine not having the house....

While I don't know much about NPC sororities and esp. on a big competitive school, I would *guess* that perhaps it would make it harder to compete (for lack of better term) with the other sororities with large beautiful houses.

*~However~* I think it could be looked at in a different way. If PNM's cut that sorority out JUST because they don't have a house, I would question what kind of PNM's that the other sororities are recieving if all they want is a beautiful mansion.

Maybe I'm just a very positive person, but I believe a true sisterhood can exist with or without a house. And I would hope PNM's can see that too.

:)

on my campus we have one GLO that is unhoused (by choice) and they do suffer in numbers for it...

on the other hand, they have one of the strongest sisterhoods on the campus... they have 90 - 100 % participation at greek events as compared to some larger houses to struggle to get 30 - 40 % of their girls to show up

For the most part, I would say a house is necessary if everyone else has one.

While you do want to stand out from other chapters in some ways... this is not one of them.

When I was an active 2 of our chapters had houses on "greek row" with the six fraternities; the other 4 houses each had half of a dorm on campus. All had a chapter room and a kitchen, and slept about 38 to 40 (total of 85, with most chapters at 100+). Pi Phi finally (after 52 years on our campus) moved into a house on greek row two years ago, and while I have to say that it never negatively affected us to not have a house as far as recruitment, numbers, ect, it is AMAZING to now have a house to do more activities at, invite alums to, ect.
But we weren't trying to start as a new chapter without a house, and there were other chapters in dorms at that time.

I think that it is necessary for a chapter to have a house (far more so for sororities than fraternities...although I don't know why) if everyone else does.

The main thing is to think about how it will be perceived by rushees. I think very few of us can say that as incoming freshmen we were mature enough, or knew enough to understand what really matters when selecting a house. 99% of rushees don't have a resource like GC or an older sibling to tell them that a chapter house is not that important. Even if they do, I think that there still is a draw for *typical* rushees to not look past the housing aspect. I know that at Nebraska, Pike who is without a house, usually draws in members who normally wouldn't have joined the Greek system. They are a fairly large house and have a very diverse group of guys, but the general feeling among others on campus is that half of those guys would not have considered a fraternity if there wasn't a group like Pike on campus.

We have a similar situation on our campus: 11 NPC sororities, only one of which is unhoused. They do suffer for numbers because of it, but it hasn't caused their death (at least not yet). A lot of the girls rent out a block of apartments together, so that they have something similar to a house -- yet nobody is required to live in if they don't want to, and they all have their own personal living spaces.

It seems to work well for them -- yes, they are the smallest (I think) sorority on campus, but they're still a pretty decent size.

It depends on the school, of course. I can think of schools where it would be a much bigger deal to be the only chapter on campus without a house.

If everyone is unhoused, you can make a go of it.
DG and Gamma Phi Beta at UBC in Vancouver have been going strong for 75 years and they're unhoused, as are all groups at UBC!

I Don't Think So!
 

I'm an alum from the '70's, so forgive me for being optimistic...

I sincerely hope that a group of women who want to form a sisterhood in this millenium will succeed without having to have big time real estate.

I attended a reasonably small private college in Chicago, (mostly commuter students,) and we managed to maintain, and grow, a chapter during times when greek life was not popular. The university has grown a lot in the last 25 years, and our Delta Zeta chapter has grown with it. 72 sisters stong. Without a house.

A house does not make a sisterhood. Common values, common goals, great times, and great friendships do. I can't imagine that
things have changed that much since I graduated. Or at least I hope that they haven't!

I'm keeping this group of women in my thoughts, and sending positive vibes to Iowa. I sincerely hope that they are successful, and that they have the rare opportunity to have the same sorority experience that I had in college. And that I still have to this day.

With or Without A House!

Robin

on my campus, no sorority has a house... however... all the fraternities do. it is true, the fraternity with the biggest, best house is the one that gets the most rushes... it is SO possible to have a strong sisterhood without a house, but its realyl hard to get the initial interest going.. with hard work, it can work though...

I'd say it depends on the school.

When I rushed, one out of five sororities had a house. Now, 3 sororities are housed, one has a suite in a dorm, and one is totally unhoused. Having vs. not having a house doesn't seem to have affected numbers, though this may be because all but one round of rush is held in function rooms in the student center - leveling the playing field.

It is absolutely possible to have a strong sisterhood without having a physical building to live in. I agree with WindyCityDZ there.

But PNMs sometimes have to make quick decisions about which groups to cut based on very little information. Round 1 parties can last as little as 20 minutes. If they've been shown beautiful house after beautiful house and are then taken to some classroom or function room, they may think WTF? and cut that sorority just for being unhoused.

I do hope this chapter succeeds, for obvious reasons ;) - but I'm concerned that, under these circumstances, being unhoused will hurt them.

My school is a mid-sized university (15,000 or so). I can't really speak for sororities as they always seem to have a house. Fraternities however did until just recently. When PKA came on campus one of the stipulations placed on them by IFC was that they couldn't have a house for 3 years (don't know why). They actually have become either the largest or 2nd largest group on campus in the short time they've been around and with no house. It actually frees up a LOT of money and they are known for throwing great parties (which they usually invite us to).

Anyhow... if this group handles it right it may not be so bad. They will have lower dues and be able to do just as much -- Except live together.

TOTALLY depends on the campus.

As for Iowa Hawkeye's example...I would say if there are 2 or 3 unhoused groups out of say 15, they can survive. If there's only 1, no, unless their national is going to accept that this will affect their numbers and act accordingly.

We always had fiormal rush in classrooms, because our houses varied SO widely in decor/size, that it would be unfair to do otherwise. I know there are "nicer" houses on every campus, but face it, a mansion is still a mansion!

Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not up on all the Panhel regulations, but I thought it was a Panhel rule that all sororities had to have equal oppurtunities and resources.

So I thought that if one chapter had a house, then all of the chapters had to have a house (or some sort of house).

At IU, back in the early 90s, there were 4 or 5 sororities that had to live in the dorms because they didnt have houses.

They did not do well in recruitment and now 3 of those sororities are no longer with us.

The other 2 sororities managed to build large beautiful houses (about 1993).

However, living in the dorms hurt their recruitment so much, that one of them JUST started recovering in the LAST FEW YEARS (by recover, I mean consistenly strong/large pledge classes).

The other one, is still having severe problems with recruitment. 19 party is this weekend, so I hope that they do well this year.

This is all from the perspective of a very large sorority system though.

Every sorority has a large beautiful house. It would be tough for a young woman going through rush to turn down the chance to live in large mansion on campus.

So the realist in me would say that it would not work here.

I dont know your school's environment though.

Re: I Don't Think So!
 

You don't need to be forgiven for that.

\Nope, that's not right. Panhel or the school can hardly help who has wealthy alums who want to give money, or who has more nearby chapters to help out, etc. All Panhel does to equalize things is put a cap on how much each chapter can spend on rush - and believe me the wealthier chapters find ways around it.

About 10, 12 years ago, no sorority on my campus had houses. The university started moving the four sororities then on campus into campus-owned homes, one at a time. After the first one moved in, a fifth chapter came on campus.

"Amazingly," when that first chapter got a house, guess whose numbers went up! Guess who everyone wanted to join! Another chapter got a nice house a couple of years later, and their numbers went up, too. Then another moved into the biggest sorority house on campus, with mostly single bedrooms - and suddenly they were "the" chapter to join. I don't think it was any coincidence that the remaining two, one who was in a dorm and one who shared a dorm-style building with a fraternity (split down the middle) were suddenly the smallest. Of course that was then used as the justification for not finding houses for them then ("their numbers aren't doing so well"), but between the other chapters saying, "They're not real, they don't have a house," and rushees saying, "Gee, would I rather live in a crappy dorm or a pretty house?" I think either chapter would have had to work miracles to get their numbers up to "earn" a house once they had been left out basically randomly in the housing game.

I blame the university here, because they were the ones who decided to move the sororities and do it one at a time. What did they think would happen?

They're supposed to build a Greek row near some of the houses, and move the Greeks who are on the ugly south end of campus as well as the unhoused ones. But I have trouble imagining how about 12 chapters are going to fit into the two-house lot that has been selected for the site. I have a feeling some guys are going to get burned (again) when their old houses are taken away and lo and behold there isn't a new house for them.

A lot of people are saying that it depends on your campus, and to an extent that is true...only if very few of the chapters (1 or 2) have a chapter house.

Others have said that a house shouldnt' be necessary b/c sisterhood/brotherhood isn't made by living in a house.
That may be true, but remember this is a competition for rushees.

Remember to look at this from a rushee's perspective: if everythign is fairly equal what are they more likely to choose? Not saying all rushees arent' sophisticated enough to look beyond a house, but I think that it is safe to say that 99% aren't!!! Don't believe me? I'm sure if you look through some of the rush threads you will notice comments time and time again about decorations, house set up, whether the rushee liked the house, etc. IT IS IMPORTANT!!!!1

We who are on the other side know that a house is not the most important thing, but that has only come from our experiences. But again I think most people agree that when they were going through rush they weren't thinking that way...

I totally agree with you. Houses do make an impression on PNMs - and not having one when everyone else does will make it that much easier when it comes time to make cuts. Who are we kidding when we say PNMs should look past whats on the surface, like a house, and choose a group because of the great sisterhood, which they know nothing about yet or have experienced - the whole rush process is superfical! we choose new members based on 30 minute conversations!

On my campus it's pretty traditional that after living in the dorms your freshman year, you move into your sorority/fraternity house your sophomore year if you are greek. I just think of how much better I got to know girls and how much fun I had staying up all night, always having someone to do things with - and I would surely miss it if we didn't have a house!

I really really hope good things happen with this new sorority. Last year a new fraternity (AEPi) came to campus and were housed in a regular house compared to the big traditional fraternity houses, and after the inital colonizing members (i think there were about 10-15) they didn't get any more new members. Well this year they moved into a big, beautiful old fraternity house right along the river and bam, they got 14 NMs during formal recruitment - thats great for a fraternity on my campus!

I guess since I'm an "outsider" to the whole NPC world, I don't understand.. but if members openly say the recruitment process is "superficial".. why don't they change it? I'm sure easier said than done. But I guess it's just the principle of the matter. And I guess I'm way too optimistic to say that girls won't cut out perfectly good sisterhoods just because they don't have a house, or because their house isn't the biggest and most beautiful. That is almost the same as one thread in the Rush forum questioning a PNM because they didn't have a certain "image".

Many Professional GLO's are not even allowed to have houses or other properties, and we do just great. Once again, I understand these two are entirely different types of GLO's but the concept is the same. There are other business GLO's on our campus, and our PNM's have the opportunities to meet all the groups and decide who is for them (mutual selection process also).

Do NPHC GLO's have houses? How does this affect their numbers if at all?

First of all the occurance of Professional GLO's and their success is dependent on the school. People at my university would laugh at someone who treated their Professional org in the same sense as people treat their social GLO. It is very dependent on the campus. The professional GLO's here tend to be resources, with speakers and presentations...rather than intramurals, parties, big recognizable philanthropies and things that are typical among the social. There's a thread about this somewhere, on whether Social greeks consider professional/service greeks as "fellow greeks".

As for NPHC chapters, it also depends on the university, and I think it has the same type of situation as it is for NPC or IFC. If all the other chapters have a house they will be hurt, if not then they won't. Now I speak only for the midwest where IFC and NPC chapters tend not to be in any form of competition for potential members. It may different other places.

YOU All are right in both ways!

Depends on teh School!

My school, if you do not have a House well you are screwed! Both Frat./Soro. have Houses.

LXA at Fl Tech is the only one who does not have a house and are the Strongest.

William-Jewell, the Fraternitys have haouses, the Soroitys do not but are given space in teh Dorms.

Depends on teh size of the scholl and the Greek Orgs on campus!

Catch 22!

Most of the multi-racial scholls, the NHPC Orgs do not have Houses as are to small to support a costly building to support!

I cannot speak for HBC's, but feel that schools like Grambling, ETC do have houses. Someone pleas tell me if I am wrong!:confused:

A chapter without a house is like ice cream without a cone. You don't really have to have the cone, it's just a good addition. ;)

:rolleyes: ok i'm not even going there because that's not the topic of the thread.. the point I was trying to make was about housing. sorry if you don't consider us "fellow greeks".