Sorority Houses a Possibility at U. of Tennessee?
 

Station WBIR in Knoxville is reporting that U. of Tennessee officials "are meeting with sorority alumni [sic] clubs to review proposals for building houses on campus."

The report quickly touches on some concerns: suitable locations, cost, ability of all sororities to afford comparable housing, etc.

See

http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=33477

According to the station's story, a "final answer" is hoped for by the end of this year. Construction -- if any -- would be "at least two years away."

Incidentally, the report also mentions that Auburn is thinking about houses for sororities, too. (Tennessee and Auburn are apparently the only two SEC schools wihout sorority houses.)

I think there are some U. of Tennessee sorority members and alumnae who post on GC. Maybe they can help keep us updated about the discussions and decisions.

Re: Sorority Houses a Possibility at U. of Tennessee?
 

Auburn is not looking to build "houses" for the sororities...more like suites/nicer "dorm" type things.

Just FYI :)

Whoa, I thought we still had the brothel law here in TN

No -- that's an urban legend.

Well, I don't know if it's an urban legend exactly or if there is just an exception to that rule with regard to sorority houses or other organizational living quarters.

I don't know how many women (if any) actually live in them, but I know that there are sorority houses at Vanderbilt, in Nashville.

There are also sorority houses at Austin Peay. However, they are essentially just large chapter rooms, as either no one or only a handful of girls live in them. MTSU is supposed to be getting "townhouses." (So they have been saying for umpteen years now...) But, only a few girls would be able to live in them. It would basically be just officers' quarters.

For some reason, Tennessee can't bear to bring itself out of the dark ages.

Actually, I Love Tenn.:)

But coming from a School that All Greeks have Houses, Good, Bad, and Ugly, it still can be a drain on Chapters.

This is what is so funny, that Sororitys usually have More Members than Fraternitys and could afford it better.

But, still the cost of a House can overwhelm many Groups.

Just Beware of what You wish. As I understand that Many Fraternitys are having a hard time paying for their New Houses at Middle Tenn.

Having been on OUr House Corp. for over 10 Years, the Cost of Beds can be a breaking point.

Cost of Beds, what is Charged for Parlor Fees for Non Live-ins has to be compariable to Dorms and Rental Properties in the area.

Granted, it is a Place to Be at, meetings, Partys, Etc., it still cost Money to run and maintain.

So so true.

My fees at U of A were so much because of the house, while had I chosen to affiliate to ASU they would have been considerably less because they don't have houses.

Houses are nice but they are expensive. If you don't have the numbers then they are going to be impossible to keep (rent, etc...)

That's definitely the case. The University of Alabama was nice enough to give my sorority a house when we were starting out, but we gave it back after just one semester, because we couldn't have kept it full...we were mostly upperclasswomen who didn't want to move back on campus. Houses are definitely expensive. I think they're soooo worth it though, if you can support one.

interestingly enough, it often costs less to live in a sorority house vs. living in an apartment, when all the costs are compared, according to our national housing corporation president.

as for keeping the houses full, perhaps that is why houses built today are not built with the intention of housing all members of the chapter.

i know at fsu, enough girls want to live in the houses, that a point system (or some other criteria)is used to determine who can live in. the largest capacity house (delta zeta) houses 75, which would be about half the average chapter size on campus.

That's interesting that the DZ house at FSU holds the most girls. If I'm not mistaken, they have they highest capacity at Alabama, too.

the original plan at tennessee was to build townhouses but that is no longter happenning. some sororities, including mine are building 40-50 bedroom houses. it's only the top chapters though. unless i'm mistaken the only ones building houses are aopi, kd, chi o, adpi, and tri delta

40-50 bedrooms? Are you sure? Maybe you mean 40-50 beds, or 4-5 bedrooms (many townhoses have just a few bedrooms and house only officers). Wow, 40 or 50 bedrooms would make that a HUGE house!!!

She means 40 - 50 beds.

yeah i meant 40-50 beds, sorry for the confusion!

If it had that many Bed Rooms, WOW what a House that would have been!http://clicksmilies.com/s0105/aktion...smiley-006.gifHeck even with that many beds, it is still a big house!:D

Where in the world is there land around the Un T to build Houses such as these?

they're talking about building them on the agriculture campus which is the same campus it's just farther from the center of campus and it's across a busier street

Good Bad or Indiffernt in thinking from The Sororitys?

Where from say the LXA House?

it's definitely a good thing, my chapter is very excited about it, even though we probably won't get to live in the house. the lambda chi house is the last one on frat row and therefore the closest to where the sorority houses will be, but still a ways away, campus is huge

Zeta is building a house also. It sounds like it will house about 40 people.

The last I heard, my chapter was looking at building a lodge, which would give us room to expand. I can't decide if this is a good or a bad thing. Having suites in the Panhellenic Building evened the playing field at least a little.

We alumnae have been asked to give what I consider a sizeable donation. I made a modest one. I'm a copy editor. I don't live in a McMansion. And on the way to work, I drive right down the middle of the area of our city that provides services for the homeless. I just can't bring myself to spend my money on a shiny-shiny lodge when I see people five days a week who don't have adequate food, clothing and shelter. My donation was the same amount I gave to the fund my paper oversees that provides Christmas food baskets to the needy. That I can live with. I'm just more concerned about feeding people these days.

any truth to the rumor that Beta is taking over the DTD House? I thought they had a really small chapter.

they are an extremely small chapter and i haven't heard anything about that and would be very surprised if it were true. honestly i don't know, but i would assume not.

Update: Possible Location for Sororities
Channel 6 in Knoxville has a short news piece about the proposed location for a new sorority village -- pending approval, of course:

http://www.wate.com/Global/story.asp?S=5495894&nav=0RYv

Wish I were more familiar with the area -- how about it? Does this sound like a good location?

Thanks ex.

Interesting and I hope it comes to fruitation!

Amazing how many Campi do not have Sorority Houseing except in Dorm Halls.:(

we once had an advisor that went to auburn. their chapter closed down before it was recolinized just recently. i know they used to have a house. as for UT i am curious as to why all the sororites wouldn't get houses? aren't they all really strong there?

This proposed location looks like it's a bit of a hike from the academic buildings. Unless I'm totally off base, this location is almost not even on campus. There is a good amount of land there, though. I would attach a map, but it would wonk the whole thread.

Map:
http://web.knoxnews.com/images/news/1005sororitymap.jpg

At the top right of the map is Cumberland Ave, which leads to campus, so you can see that it's not that close. The University is saying that they'll direct KAT busses out there to pick up the students, though.

http://omicronhouse.com/

AOII at Tennessee's House Campaign

My school doesn't even have greek dorms. With 30% of the students greek, the school feels greek housing would pull too many of the "joiners" or "leaders" out of the dorms. The school would rather have its students mix more. Additionally, there are $$ and land-use issues that the school probably does not want to deal with.

Ah yes, there are many instances like this especially in the Eastern schools.

Land is at a premium and costs are prohibative.

Being from the plains states, most Campi have houses except the private schools who also want to either prototect the virtues and their dorm space.:)

According to this website, the Panhellenic building accomodates 60 women from each sorority.

Now, volgirl's comment said the new houses would hold 40-50 beds, now is that combined with the Panhellenic building, or are they going to get rid of those suites?

I would wonder why you'd downgrade from 60- to 40-50, especially since (according to the articles) the reason for the houses was that the sororities had outgrown the suites (too many girls, etc).

Did i make any sense? lol :D :cool:

many of the fraternities at fl. state have built houses on land offered by the university off campus-it seems to be going well for them. the university has shuttle buses that run thru the neighborhood, but i would imagine that a lot of the fellas drive to campus and park at the football stadium,

The current suites are not residences - i.e. no one sleeps in. Safety and fire codes say that around 60 people are suppose to be in the suite at a time. Since many chapters have three times that amount, the chapters need larger spaces. Thus the new chapter houses will include chapter room for the full membership along with bedrooms (residency) for 40 to 50 members.

Panhellenic Building

"The Panhellenic Building houses 15 of the 18 social sororities at UTK. Although the building is not a residence hall facility, each sorority has a suite consisting of a large living room, a kitchen, an office, and a storage area."

I wish my school would build something like that for the greeks on campus so they could at least have a place other than classrooms to hold meetings/chapter, and keep things locked up.

From the UT website:
http://www.tennessee.edu/news/article.php?id=3854

"Fourteen of UT's 17 sorority chapters have submitted business pro formas and financial statements for individual facilities. Thirteen residential buildings and one non-residential building are planned on the approximately 21-acre site."

Does this mean that all of the NPC sororities are now planning on building traditional sorority houses? For a while there was talk that 6 NPCs would build traditional houses and the rest would build townhouses or stay in the current situation. There are 14 NPCs, so are 13 building houses and one building something else? I hope they are all considering building actual houses. It never seems to work well when housing is inequitable.

There are seventeen chapters that make up University of Tennessee Knoxville Panhellenic Council. Thirteen are members of NPC, three are members of NPHC, and one is a member of NALFO.

My speculation is that the thirteen residential buildings most likely will house the thirteen NPC chapters. Not sure about the one non-residential building. Might make sense to build a new building for suites for those chapters that do not want a residential building. That way, all of UT's sororities will be in the same general location. Then again, the non-residential building may be for a single chapter.

NPC chapters
Alpha Chi Omega
Alpha Delta Pi
Alpha Omicron Pi
Chi Omega
Delta Delta Delta
Delta Gamma
Delta Zeta
Kappa Delta
Kappa Kappa Gamma
Phi Mu
Pi Beta Phi
Sigma Kappa
Zeta Tau Alpha

NPHC chapters
Alpha Kappa Alpha
Delta Sigma Theta
Zeta Phi Beta

NALFO chapter
Lambda Theta Alpha

Let's Go Vols!
 

Yay! I hope this works out well for everyone! I am a Tennessee gal at heart still!

I thought there was such a law in TN also. I know for a fact that there are other states such as South Carolina and Arizona that have the same such rules. I have a KD friend at Clemson and a sister at Arizona that were both RAs/officers in their sorority's "dorms". These dorms were owned by the Unversity and were esstentinaly dorm bulidings on campus that specfic sororities were allowed to use. This seems like an internresting alternative to such laws, even if it is not a house.