Omega House Grand Opening USC Greek Village
 

On 26 February 2008, the Omega Psi Phi house at the University of South Carolina Greek Village will have its grand opening. Following is the webpage for the national housing corporation:

http://3undergraduates.com/index.html

That is nice! Congrats :)

Good stuff!

Congratulations!!!

YAY ZETA SQUARE!!!!

If I didn't have to work, I would probably attend.

congrats!

Congrats Bruh's!!!

I am so excited for the chapter! I truly wish that black greeks would be offered a house on the TCU campus.

^^^^^ Yeah!!! Congrats to the Omegas at SC. I've only been to Columbia, SC once and from what I saw in the city I know that this is truly a major mile stone. :D

/hijack/ The NPHC greeks were offered housing in the greek village at U. of Houston - main campus, but I don't think any of the D9 chapters took a house. I could be wrong, so if someone knows, feel free to correct me. ;) / end hijack/

*stomping and pounding on a table*

PICTURES! PICTURES! PICTURES!

I was in Columbia yesterday and wanted to stop by there, but by the time I left the Colonial Center it was dark (and I had three teenagers with me).

Is there any truth to the rumor that there is currently a WGLO living in the house because Zeta Zeta is off the yard?

If so, that is a BIG problem...

I'm going to say no, because they are listed under fraternities on USC's website. And as a alumni, if they were off they yard, I (and many others) would have heard something by now.

Now for the WGLOs wanting them in Greek Village, well, that's a whole different story.

It is true that the house is being leased for 3 years (with a possible option of additional 2 1-year leases) to the Pi Kappa Alpha Chapter at USC because they have the consistent numbers to occupy the house, which sleeps 40 people. This came about after the Omega housing corp looked into all the NPHC groups to lease the house who had numbers to make this work. But, in the end, the prospect of having a group which has consistent numbers to make this enterprise viable at the moment the best decision.

It is not true that ZZ Chapter is off the yard. They just don't have the numbers to make this financially viable at this time. The Fraternity will work with them to reorganize the chapter and recruit to put the chapter in a position to occupy the house in 2-3 years. When all is said and done, this is a business venture in which the housing corporation and Fraternity will make money from the project.

This does bring up a very valuable point:we (NPHC groups) brag about how we don't have rush as our manner of intake and we don't actively recruit;but if you want to have large chapter houses, somebody's got to pay the mortgage and the bills. Thus you have to have the numbers--you have to have recruitment goals, like most of the NIC and NPC groups do!

First, I want to say that I am not dissing the Omegas. I love them dearly and I am still proud of what they have been able to accomplish at USC.

But if they didn't have the numbers (which I did not know this until today), why in the devil did they build a house? When I graduated from USC in 2001, there weren't event 10 Omegas on campus. When it was announced that they were building a house, it made it seem like (to me) that they had grown a whole lot and they would occupy the house once it was done. I also wondered why the Alphas (who have been at McBride, the old Greek housing) and the Kappas (at the time of the announcement, the SGA president was a Kappa) weren't offered a house. The whole time I was there and since then, they were always bigger in numbers than the Omegas. Hell, if USC wanted to diverse Greek Village so bad with an NPHC group, they could have offered the house to the sorors because they have the numbers (but due to their history on campus I can understand why they didn't).

I know a lot of it has to do with our black leaders and a lot of them being Omegas. But if the numbers aren't there, why do it? Wolfman said that it would take about 40 people to sleep in the house. Carolina considers 10 to be a big line and with the long MIP, finding pledges who have the requirements, and competing with other Greeks and athletics (some also play sports), it would take a long time for 40 people to be in that house. They may get some help with the Sigmas being off the yard (sorry blue and white fam) but even with that, I don't see that being possible.

I wish Zeta Square and the National office luck with their goal to occupy the house. But as a person who is a graduate and knows some of the inner workings, it make take A WHOLE LOT to reach that goal.

Well, of course they'd have to lease the house to a larger chapter. They could've seen that coming. And of course this isn't the first time that an NPHC org has had to find ways to keep their house by either leasing it to another org (including another NPHC org) or having nonmembers live in the house.

I definitely see your point.

There are NPHC orgs that have participated in NPC and NIC rush to some degree. I don't know if they've gotten more attention and numbers than they would've without that. At a lot of universities the NPHC orgs will never get more than 15-20 new members with or without recruitment.

I still don't like the idea of NPHC doing recruitment. If that means that chapters at certain universities stay small and can't afford to have a house, it is what it is.

Okay, so that I get this straight. The Omegas own the house (or rather the mrtgage) but are leasing it to another GLO, because the Omegas themselves would not be able to pay for the house.

The house sleeps 40, but the Omegas typically have around 10 members at any given time. So unless they do some major recruitment in the next 2-3 years (for the purpose of paying for the house as opposed to finding good prospective Omega men) they will have to keep leasing the house out to another GLO or open it up to other residents.

And this is a good investment how?

Soror LG, we are so >>>>here<<<<. :D :D

You have a small, but decent African American population at USC. Factor in those who are too busy to pledge because they play sports. Those who want to pledge may not have the GPA. Then you have those who don't play sports. Some of them may find the other Greeks more tempting. Some don't want to pledge at all. That leaves very little guys who may be qualified and WANT to be Omega men.

The largest line I have ever seen for the fraternities at USC was 16 (and it wasn't the Omegas). The Omegas have to have 25 or more to accomplish the goal they are seeking. The Alphas had to have a line every semester to keep their numbers up for their house.

I also want PV06 to comment, since she's been out a shorter period of time than I have.

I'm just laying out the situation without spin. But the issue was not simply about diversity in the Greek Village; it was about who could come up with the "green." Omega was in a position to do it financially. The Omega housing corporation owns the house but leases the land from USC for a nominal fee. In this sense, this venture was like all the other houses. In the final analysis, this is a business investment venture and this project was structured so that the Omega housing corporation makes money off this project, which they want to parlay into other similar ones. The idea from its conception was wider than simply a service to the local (ZZ) chapter at USC.

This is not a good economy right now to be making real estate investment ventures. Especially a risky one like this. But I wish the Omega Housing Corporation all the best.

If if wasn't about diversity, why did President Sorensen personally call Omega headquarters to ask to build a house? He probably looked around and realized that there were no NPHC fraternities and sororities in Greek Village. He had a good relationship with the Omegas when he was at the University of Alabama, so he contacted them.

And about the money thing: If you have some bruhs who are in some major leadership positions: political (Rep. Clyburn), education (Dr. Sellers) and financial/business, they can easily come up with the money. Even though some of the WGLOs do want to look at the money, most of the time they think of fellowship and a gathering place for their members when they build/lease houses, not as a long-term investment.

Ditto.

You misquoted me. I didn't say it was not about diversity--you left out "simply." The point I was making was that it was also about the "green". If the "leadership" is not behind the venture and willing to put up some means these types of things won't happen. And you are correct in that well respected Brothers in the financial sector in SC, esp. Tony Grant, was very influential in making this venture happen.

I don't want to denigrate the house. But it seems those resources could have been used to build Omega community centers that could be rented out to community groups for community service programs, similar to how the Omega HQ rents out space to small businesses, and nonprofit groups ( at least they did when we visited the HQ during our ATL national convention) i.e. economic development. Now that impressed me.

A frat house on one campus just does not, to me, seem to me to be a logical investment. But then maybe it is my MBA and social service background coming out.

And again I wish the Housing Corporation well in this venture.

I'm not necessarily an apologist for the project; I'm just laying out the rationale for what was stated. There is a diversity of opinion in the Fraternity about this project (a real understatement!). Per your opinions about what would be more worthy projects, Omega is involved in a project building low income housing in Ensley, Alabama, an economically depressed community.

And the Friendship Foundation, the owner/administrator of the Omega World Center, which includes the Omega IHQ, is trying to get full capacity for the tenant space in this large office bldg. This more aggresive business model represents a different paradigm for the Fraternity in terms of ways and means and has not been fully embraced by all.

Good stuff! I hope the Omega World Center is successful, because that to me it a paradigm we should all follow. Can you imagine if all nine of us employed that business model in one form or another--providing incubators for small businesses? Talking about real economic development.

It's one thing to provide low-income housing (don't get me wrong, that is a symptom that needs to be treated) but it's another thing to provide opportunities for wealth creation to prevent the symptom.

Kudos to the Omegas.

Thanks for the clarification.