Sorority in crisis, please help!!
 

I go to a medium-sized Midwestern school and I’m in an NPC sorority. Our chapter is amazing. We’ve stayed at total for the entirety of my membership, we were sorority of the year at my campus last year, we are one of the top rated chapters of our sorority. We have one major problem. No one wants to live in the house, and for legitimate reasons.
We are 10 slots short of filling our house next year. That means we have about $20,000 our house corp isn’t getting, and this will be divided by the non-house girls (40 some) as empty-bed fees. That’s about $500 a cut, money none of these girls have. Girls won’t move in now because everyone is already leased somewhere else. I’m fearing massive drops, debt because even if we send credit agents after these girls we don’t get everything, and low morale. What have your chapters done in this situation? Any creative ideas for a fix? We need to get that money somehow.

What are the legitimate reasons for not living in the house?

Can you move to a smaller house?

Is there a live-in requirement in your bylaws? If not, one needs to be instituted and enforced ASAP (not that you can enforce it now).

I sympathize with you. This is a horrid situation to be in and one I'm guessing you inherited (i.e. it didn't happen overnight).

What is the ratio of beds in the house as compared to the total number of girls? If it's 25-50%, can't you impose a mandatory live-in clause for the sophs and jrs?

Another chapter at my school actually took in boarders (only matriculated students who were not members of any sorority) to offset the costs. I don't know why anyone would want to live in a sorority house where she is not a member, but apparently it worked for all the involved parties.

Chances are your international org has one in theirs.

Sisters living in the house are preferable to boarders who may be inconvenienced by having to leave the house they pay rent at when you host ritual events.

The house corp, being made up of sorority alum, should also recognize there is a possible "danger" in housing non-members in the sorority house -- breach in ritual, other sororities on campus talking about you and starting rumors that inhibit your recruitment, etc.

Your house corp should pay to break leases for those sisters who have already signed with off-campus housing/on-campus residence halls, etc. This will cost them far less in the long-run.

First, make this offer to all chapter members. See how many spots you still have open. Next, require any chapter officers not currently living-in to live in. Again, house corp. will pay to break their leases. At best you fill the house this way. At worst, someone drops her office and refuses to live in-- in which case you fill the office when the school year begins. If there are any spots still open after these first two options have been exhausted, require your most recent pledge class to fill the remaining spots until they're gone.

Some people may drop b/c of this-- but if they're going to throw this kind of hissy fit, you probably don't want them around anyway.

You also need to amend your chapter bylaws once the school year begins to address what you should do if the house is not full and the order of priority for members to move-in. In fact, review your bylaws now-- the guide may already be in there!

alum - I can totally understand someone preferring to live in one of the sorority houses at your alma mater, rather than trying to look for an apartment and landlord who would be decent. That can be scary in a teeny college town let alone Squill/Oakland. I'm sure there were also parents who preferred that option immensely!

adpiucf - it depends on the size of your house - if you either 1) have a large enough space for rituals & such that's apart from the rest of the house (like a basement) or 2) have a teeny house and really don't have rituals or meetings there, it's not as bad as it sounds.

If you ever do get stuck and have to take in boarders, try to get grad students or seniors who have no interest in pledging whatsoever and just need a place to lay their heads. If you take in underclassmen who might want to be Greek, it can get dicey.

Aside from medical or scholastic issues, there is no "legitimate" excuse for not living in a chapter facility if there is a requirement to do so. And if women do have medical or scholastic issues, a letter from their physician or student advisor needs to accompany their request to live out and even then, it should be decided on by the House Corp or Advisory Board whether or not to grant live out status.

I dealt with this at the chapter I advised. We eventually had to be extremely firm with chapter members. Members were informed during their new member period that they basically had to live in the house for two years (usually soph-jr year). That way they knew from the very beginning what the expectations were for living in. We also did not grant live out status unless it was a serious medical issue. If girls wanted to live out, they had to resign membership. No exceptions. The first year was difficult - they had about 10% of the chapter resign. But after the expectation was made known, that number decreased the following years. These provisions were in the chapter bylaws, but almost noone, aside from the chapter officers, knew that - even after a chapter reading of the bylaws.

In order to recoup the money lost, you can try and work out a payment plan for the women who need to pay the extra money, or you can cut areas from other parts of the budget. We found cutting the social budget made the biggest impact. Or tell the women that because of the shortage of funds, there cannot be any updates to the chapter facility.

No matter what, the House Corp needs to be paid.

But CMU Housing has more than enough for undergrads with no social restrictions as the sorority houses had. Housing had a lottery:rising srs picked rooms the first night, jrs the 2nd, sophs the 3rd.

I liked being in a dorm but wouldn't have minded parts of Squirrel Hill. After all, a lot of our professors and students came from there. Oakland and Shadyside? Not so sure.

I have to disagree that there aren't legitimate reasons to live out. "Legitimate" reasons are determined by chapter bylaws, and there is no one standard for what those should be. For example, most chapters on my campus allowed RAs to live out, waiving the out-of-house fee. The reasoning was with deferred rush, RAs were a great way of marketing your chapter. But I can totally see where another chapter might have a different rule.

I don't know what your chapter's policy has been in the past, but it is going to be difficult to change the rules now - assuming that the out-of-house sisters are in fact following current policy. (I'm not saying it shouldn't be done - just prepare for resistance.) For the future, it may be beneficial to revise your bylaws to allow flexibility. For example, "All active members are required to live in the house. If the number of active members exceeds the available space, the following groups of members will be given the choice to live out, in the following order ..."

For now, buying sisters out of leases sounds like the best option; the difficult part is deciding which sisters have to move in.

If you're referring to me, a situation such as being an RA would be considered a "scholastic" excuse. Yes, they will vary from chapter to chapter, but the definitely need to be set out in the chapter bylaws and explained thoroughly to chapter members, otherwise, IME, women will try to take advantage of them.

That is also why requests for live out go through the House Corp or Advisory Board. If a situation falls in a somewhat grey area, they can ascertain whether it's "legitimate" or not.

Ah OK. I'm not saying Squill itself is scary, rather the prospect of being from Pigsknuckle PA and trying to find an apartment is.

Is Pigsknuckle a real place? I know there are a few cities in PA with weird names... LOL.

No, Pigsknuckle is a reference from Animal House. We do however have Slippery Rock, Scalp Level and Blue Ball. :p

Ah thank you! LOL

And let's not forget Intercourse, PA.

I lived in Philly through elementary school. I remember the map of PA hanging in the classroom... I don't think all those town founders had intended for those names to sound as silly as we find them today.... but they do make for a good laugh. :)

SLIMEY PEBBLE!!!

*Ghost GLO*

Sorry, I'm done.

Knowing nothing about how sororities work...

Is the OP a member of the chapter?

If so, why isn't the house corporation doing their job? This is not a problem that the active chapter should be facing alone. They're simply not equipped.

The house corp needs to come in and tell 'em how it's going to be... or they can sell the house. This has got to be a problem with some older chapters where the members of the house corp no longer have a personal financial stake in whether or not the house gets foreclosed on. If these folks don't want to do their jobs, perhaps it's time for your HQ to have a come to Jesus with your alumnae?

Seems the O P is not interested any longer.

Maybe she doesn't care?:confused:

It is still of interest for all of us who own House Buildings.

We ran into a similiar situation when I was a sophmore in my chapter. And had several emergency meetings to resolve the issue. Our chapter house rooms are owned by the school, we rent the rest. Its odd - its "your house", but not really.

Here is what we did...
first we held a meeting to see if anyone would give up their current leases - girls would do whatever to help find another roommate to sublease in her place/chapter would pay the apartment fees for subleasing.

Any girl in the house could buy out an entire room to live by herself (two girls per room was standard)

Or we were forced to have nonmembers move in. Which would have been very bad - since we owned some much of the extras in the house and letters everywhere.

What ended up happening ... many girls gave up leases to move in... people helped find others to fill their leases. One girl bought out an entire room. Thats year problem solved.

To avoid the situation in the future first a mandatory requirement that you are required to live in the house one year was adopted. This was told to girls rushing up front, but at the same time we talked up living in the house big time so that girls would want to live their freshman year.

Second a lottery system was done up to make things fair. First everyone wishing to move in could sign a contract, second the lottery was done - if you had not lived in the house and were younger class you had a better chance to having your name drawn, etc. Very unlikely if you were older/lived in the house before that you were name would be chosen.

Yes, we had girls drop out instead of living in the house, but honestly if you didn't want to live in the house just because then why were you in the sorority in the first place.

For the rest of the time I was there things worked out - honestly I do not know how the housing situation has been since.

I agree that it would be far cheaper for your corp. board in the long run, and better for your chapter in so many ways. Even if they can't step up to the plate and pay to break the leases (or give a short term loan to help their sisters), they could at the very least step up and help with the process itself. For some reason landlords pay a little more attention in college towns when an "adult" is involved, and it might help the members feel taken care of, that their house needs them.

Agreed! When I was initiated, we had 27 actives in a house that can hold 52. (We're closer to 70 now, hooray!) It was openly stated that our semester of initiation, we weren't expected to move in (although many Fall Formal Recruitment NMs did) but the following semester, we did. The house needed to stay full, and if there were vacancies, the actives were expected to be in-house. It was a responsibility of membership. If it were full, the Seniors had first choice to be out-of-house, and actually our corp. board happened to own the "residential" house next door and it would become the senior annex.

I digress... do review (and possibly modify) your by-laws and ask your alumnae to step up to the plate! Would your Greek affairs office be able to help with the lease-breaking? Just a last-minute thought...

Good luck, keep us posted! :)

Uh, it's only been a few hours. She probably just has a life outside of GC. :rolleyes:

Why is this problem just coming up now? I went to a medium-sized midwestern university and we had to have our housing contracts in place by the end of winter quarter.
We used to have a meeting of all actives and those that wanted to live in the house would sign up to do so. If there were empty spots, then those who had signed up to live in the house would leave the room, followed by those who had already lived in the house. Then everyone who had yet to live in got to sit in the room until the house was full.

The only options I see are 1) force girls to break thier lease 2) allow new members to move into the house right away. If the new members are in dorms, the university might allow sophmores and up to break thier contracts and move into the house.

Whatever you do, make sure that during recuitment, it looks like the house is full- so if you have 1 girl in a double- put a comforter or whatever on the spare bed so that it looks like 2 girls are there (especially during open house).

Or if you can, just close the doors to those rooms and don't show them.

One thing I did like at my undergrad was there were often 2-3 spots open in the fall semester so that if a new member wanted to move in right after recruitment (we had recruitment the week before school started) she could. We had quite a few new members take advantage of that while I was in school.

Just to clarify:
We had a mandatory move-in list. Our bylaws say 1 year in the house, and if at mandatory move in time, chaper members would be reviewed by judiary board. Our advisor gave us the option to vote on it this spring. Our chapter chose not to execute the list. Most of the younger girls didn't seem to really process the amount of money this would add up to.
Our active chapter has a poor relationship with our house corp, and has for quite some time. A situation like this happened before about 5 years ago, but it wasn't this amount of empty spaces.

The town my school is in passed a law banning the zoning of any new greek houysing. There are only about 12 houses at a school with 18 fraternities and sororities. We do not want to lose this house. Even though it isn't ideal, if we lost it we would never get it back.

Our chapter has faced empty spots every year I've been in the chapter. (I'm a senior) When I lived in the house, we had one empty, but it has never been at this point.

I am monitoring this closely, as are other chapter members. Please keep posting. And that point about recruitment is an excellent idea.

Your advisor is beyond stupid. Why on earth did she have the power to tell you to vote whether or not to do this? It's in your bylaws, you have to follow it, unless you change the bylaw! Is she an alumna of your sorority?

You do have a house corp, right?

At this point, 20K in the hole is not good. Your president needs to send a message out to the sisters, stat-- We either fill this house or we will lose this house and we will never get another. We have 10 spots to fill and we will work with you to get you out of a signed lease so you aren't paying a penalty. 10 spots-- what's it going to be ladies?

I definitely agree with that. Advisers need to be aware of the concept that a fraternal organization is a business first. In fact, part of their job is to be more cognizant of that fact than they typically more inexperienced collegians.

I think your problems only start there though. It sounds like your house corp in this has been relatively silent. I personally cannot imagine a house corp which would allow the organization to be 20K in the hole and not be raising a whole bunch of hell with the actives. Needless to say, unless they are being more proactive than you're letting on (and given the situation, I can't possibly imagine this), they're not doing their jobs. They ought to move on voluntarily, agree to do their jobs, or be replaced.

A successful chapter often depends on successful and dedicated alums. In your chapters case, from what you're telling us, this is what y'all are lacking.

I don't know what I'd recommend at this point because I don't know how sororities work internally. If it were my organization, I'd see if the Pres. could place a discrete call to HQ (by discrete, I mean the alums don't need to know about this)... the Pres. needs to relay the situation to them to see if they can't get some consultants here to pull your your alums' heads out of their asses.

A caveat: I have said over and over that I don't know a damned thing about the inner workings of your group. If calling your HQ about this situation would in itself jeopardize your group's continual existence by putting HQ on notice that you're a financial risk, obviously, fix the problem yourself, do your best to pay down that debt, THEN call... if your HQ would be more likely to be supportive and helpful through this, call them ASAP.

If your advisor knew of the financial difficulties of the chapter, it was not a good idea, IMO, for her to allow your chapter that option.

I think your Treasurer and her advisor need to go over the budget and plan a report for the entire chapter. Perhaps if the members actually see the breakdown of where their money is going, it will make them more aware of the situation. Make the members know they will feel the direct results of the money shortage - whether it means cutbacks in the food, social, recruitment, or other budgets or no updates and only necessary repairs to the chapter facility. It's the only way they will understand.

The House Corp and chapter also need to resolve their differences and learn to work together. See if chapter members are allowed to come to meetings (in some cases, certain chapter officers are actually ex-officio members) to know exactly what's going on and to bring the view of the chapter to the House Corp. If that won't work, then, in most cases, it's completely within the President's rights to notify a regional officer or your HQ of the situation and ask for assistance.
Again, IMO, one or two open spots isn't necessarily a bad thing provided your chapter and House corp is financially solvent with those open spots. As I mentioned, having those open spots available for new members to move in right away after recruitment was often a selling point to PNMs, especially sophomores who maybe hadn't signed a lease and didn't want to live in the dorms.

Also, aside from "legitimate" excuses, is there any particular reason women want to live out? IME, the women wanting to move out early wanted the "freedoms" (booze, boys, etc..) that weren't allowed in the chapter facility. Provide a breakdown of the cost of living in the chapter facility with all amenities included and then provide a breakdown of living in an apartment and all the things the members will then be responsible for themselves (food, utilities, cleaning, etc...). Some women don't always realize how much they're actually getting by living in the chapter facility. And talk living in the chapter facility up! I lived in my house 3.5 years and had an absolute blast. No, communal living isn't always easy and it isn't always the best option for everyone, but it is a great experience and this is about the only time in your life you'll have/need that option.

My parents wanted me to keep a single in the dorm so I would have a quiet place to study. My H and I feel the same way regarding our daughter remaining in the dorm vs. living in her house.

I'm sorry you feel that way... Maybe it's a difference in schools/systems? Also coming from a Midwestern campus... I lived 2 years in the dorms and 2 years in-house. It was far easier to ask my sisters to respect my study time than the random guy who happened to live a floor up from my dorm room. Our chapter house had a 24-hour quiet study room, a 'card room' that was great, and the dining room turned into study central during dead and finals week. Not to mention the plethora of quiet rooms on campus (library, student union, empty class rooms, lounges/commons in most buildings-upper floors were quietest). I truly felt part of the house when I moved in, not like some outsider that didn't really know what was happening. Everyone has different study habits. Finding study spaces is a part of living in any college community (chapter house, dorm, or apartment).

Especially if their corp. board is failing to support them very well, these sisters need to be tight, which means living together. Build your sisterhood - our greatest Fall Recruitment whilst I was there (ah... the good old days! ;) )was when we spent a good amount of time on getting to know each other and bonding - seeing our sisterhood, the PNMs wanted to be a part of that bond. Also a bonus: "Oh, your majoring in Elementary Ed? We have seven in the house!" "You're interested in Business Club? My roommate is President of that." etc... knowing what your sisters do helps create that connection with the PNM and your chapter. Always a good thing.

I'll third that. If you have rooms that are completely or partially empty for one reason or another, decorate them. Some facilities, depending on the lighting, might be dark and intimidating to PNMs with shut doors... do everything you can to keep the facility open, welcoming, and looking like home... so there will be a few decisions for you there, too, depending on your facility. (...oh, and always put your name on anything you lend to an empty room... ;))

Another thought... if you do have some vacancies, make certain your members don't convey "we're desperate to fill spaces so you can move in right away" ... make sure everyone is scripted with something to to effect of "sometimes we have a few spaces open in the Fall for NMs, and I think this semester we might" ...mentioning if sophomores have priority. You're avoiding two dangers: a) appearing as if you'll take any warm body (which you're not) and b) potentially promising every PNM they can for sure move in (which, I'm guessing if you hit quota, they can't).

Long Post! ...again, Good Luck!

I have had experience with a very large chapter and how they maintain the house being full. The entire chapter lives in the house. That's usually 120+ girls. Seniors get the option to live out if the house if full of Freshman, Sophmores, and Juniors. They also bought the house next to their large house and it also houses seniors.

Their rules are basically this:
1. Everyone lives in the house. That's it.
2. There are some exceptions: Medical reasons if documented by a physician, if the student still lives at home, or very extenuating cirucumstances that would best meet the needs of the sister and these are all submitted to house corporation who then meet and decide on each submission. The chapter president and one other representative are also on house corp so it's not just a bunch of old bitties sitting and deciding. I also believe RA's are excused for obvious reasons.
3. This is explained to the women as they go through rush. Since it is made clear to them at that time, there is usually little problem.

I think the important thing to do is to establish rules for your house, and unless there are specific situations that present themself, you need to follow them. They should not be open for discussion. Empty beds (as you've discovered) can seriously mess up chapter operation and the whole chapter ends up paying (literally and figuratively) for it.

For now, I think the best thing is to do what many others on here have suggested and that's try to re-establish the rules that sound like they were in place, pay for women to break their lease, and get the beds filled.

I feel the same way. My parents did, too...would've let me live in sorority housing, which I did at first until they saw how much my grades improved when I lived by myself. Some people just aren't good at distractions and some aren't good at time management, so the occasional chaos of sorority housing can really have an impact on studies.

Honestly, if I were on a House Corp that had a mandatory live-in rule and the chapter facility was not at capacity, this excuse would simply not be valid. The member could buy out her contract, and we've had women do that, but there are plenty of alternatives for quiet study places outside of the chapter facility.

There are a lot of other factors that could be contributing to the HCB's deficit in addition to empty beds...has your chapter considered how costs can be cut? Your house manager and at least one or two other exec officers should be attending HCB meetings and be knowledgeable about about what it costs to operate your house: mortgage or rent payments due monthly, staff (cooks, housekeepers, gardeners, HD) and utilities usually take the most financial resources. If you have a mortgage or rent to pay you can't do anything about that, but you might be able to cut your expenses by reducing staff hours (maybe only having a cook 4 days a week instead of 5) etc. or....I hate to say it, but members might have to do more housekeeping themselves. (That's when you learn to appreciate your mom!) Also you would be amazed at what happens to the utility bill when people simply turn things off when they leave the room!
Good luck to you and let us know how your chapter works through this!

Does your chapter have a current out-of-house fee? Above and beyond dues, you should have this fee, which acts as a deterrent to anyone who thinks they will save money by moving out. You can let them eat at the house twice per week if it makes them feel better about paying it, because it should cost less to provide meals than you take in from the fee.

(As an aside, it was $250/semester in my chapter, but I always thought it should be $250/semester your freshman year, and then $400 - $50 * number of semesters you lived in the house. So if you lived in sophomore and junior year, you would then pay $100 less per semester than girls who only lived in for one year)

Also, you should lay out the guidelines for living out as clearly as possible, so as not to put too much power in the hands of your house corp. I suggest the following as valid reasons:

1) Medical (with specific doctor's note)
2) Off-campus co-op/study abroad/student teaching/field study
3) RA
4) Marriage
5) Accessibility (almost like medical, but if you had a sister in a wheel chair and no ground-level rooms, you wouldn't make her go to the trouble of getting a doctor's note)
6) Living at home with parents

Once you take women excused for one of these reasons out of the pool, you should rank them in some manner (attendance points? GPA? number of semesters already lived in?), count from the bottom, draw a line, and make the women below the line live in no matter what.

There is a chapter on our campus that follows a rule similar to this. Any girls who had lived in the house were allowed to leave, while all other girls remained in the room. A hat is passed around, and it is up to the person with the hat to choose either a) live in the house or b) pay $50. If after any round the house is not filled, then the hat is passed around again. Very rarely will it ever get above the $200.

The main thing is that it is in your bylaws to live in the house, so it is up to your to make sure it is enforced. It also sounds like the new members did not have a clear idea of the housing situation, which is something to consider in future rushes.

... we could hijack this thread and just talk about fun PA city names including:

Beaver Falls, Mars, Zelienople lol

But back to the subject:

You definately need bylaws that have live-in requirements. The colleges that I attended required the officers to live-in. You don't live in, you lose your office. And since it's a standard to fill the house, those that aren't living in (or have not filled in the live-in requirement) are put on probation.

We used a point system. Each member recieved a point for holding office, living in, their year in college - some other things that escape me now. So after the officers signed their lease if there were rooms left over, we went to the points. Lower the points, more than likely that you'll live in.

I feel your pain of filling the house. I've been on that fence as a collegian and as an alumnae advisor.

My grades actually went UP when I moved into the sorority house, as the library was less than a block away and it was much easier to go there and study. The dorm I'd been living in was full of fraternity and sorority members and athletes, and across from the student center - way too much temptation.