Sleep Porches
 

I've always wondered this. For you people from the ginormous chapters that had sleep porches, how did that work? From pics I've seen, it's just a giant room with endless bunk beds.

Then you have a separate room in the house that you and a couple other brothers share (for TV, vid games, PC's, lounging, etc).

Are people constantly passing colds back and forth?
What the hell do you do when you have a girl stay over?
What is done with people that snore? (order a code red?)

My sorority didn't have sleeping porches (or cold airs as they were known on our campus) but many fraternity and sorority houses did.

FME, each person had a separate room (usually shared with 1-3 other people) where they would have couches, desks, dressers, tvs, etc... to hang out in.

I don't know about passing colds back and forth, but I would guess it's no more frequent than in other chapters where members sleep in their rooms.

As far as having girls/shackers, I think many guys hung sheets around their beds to act as curtains for privacy. Actually, the guys that had bunks in their room usually did this as well. It also somewhat helped with the noise issue and I'd guess people either learned to be discreet when hooking up or learned to tune out the noise.

I've no idea about snoring, but if it were really bad, the guy would probably end up sleeping on a futon or couch in his room or something. IIRC, a lot of houses had a rule about alarm clocks, too...

HoBoy, I was thinking of this and gagging and choking laffing so hard!

What about firing up farts?;)

My mother in law remembers the "quiet rooms" in her sorority house as a godsend. The only thing allowed in these rooms was sleeping (1950's no shacking up in the sorority house). The girls were assigned another room where another girl lived fulltime and in that room was her dresser, closet, desk, etc. So, for those girls who really liked it quiet and undisturbed while sleeping, this arrangement worked out great.

I think sleeping porches are pretty much amazing. They're always dark and quiet, and although it gets pretty cold in the winter with the windows open, it's actually a pretty comfortable place to sleep. Snoring and other sleeping noises aren't an issue because we have a couple fans constantly going so all you really hear is a constant fan noise, and I've never heard of people having an issue with that. We have one room in the house with a single bed that's designated for people who are getting sick, so unless multiple girls get sick at the same time, passing colds around isn't really an issue either. Since it's a sorority, we obviously can't have guys stay over anyway, so that's not an issue for us, but in most of the fraternities on campus guys tend to hang sheets around their beds. It's a little weird, though.

The fraternity chapters I know of that had cold airs/sleeping porches/open airs/whatever, did not allow girls in them. If you were hooking up, you took the girl back to your "other" room, and used the couch or futon as necessary (hopefully, for your roommates' sake you put some sheets down and made sure you did laundry often). I do know that the Betas at KU do not allow any girls above the first floor - Seniors and early roll number Juniors got the pick of the downstairs rooms first. I've heard but can't confirm, that the basement of the house gets used by younger guys, and that there's a fair amount of sneaking girls upstairs as well, but again, I have no idea how true that is. It's just one reason why I'd never have been able to be a KU Beta.

As for alarm clocks, every chapter I've heard of uses a system where pledges each take a week or two in which they are required to get up at 4:30 or 5am and then wake brothers up at the requested time throughout the rest of the morning. I'd imagine most times you could just put your schedule down for the semester and it'd stay pretty constant from week to week.

Yeah, wouldn't be a smart idea to kinda put guys who wake up around the same in time in a group or such?

My campus calls them Rack Rooms, and it was the best sleep I ever had!!

Our rack room was on the third floor of our house, and had the rows of racks (beds) and a bathroom. The gigantic exhaust fans made great noise, and it was quiet 24 hours a day (unless a fraternity did a Rack Raid, but that's another story...), so I loved to go up there and nap between classes. I had my room downstairs that I shared with two other girls, and it had our sofa, desks, dressers, closets, etc. Then each girl had a rack upstairs--most were bunk beds, but a row in the middle had no bunks above them. Those were coveted and willed to younger sisters at Senior Wills.

We all had our alarm clocks next to our beds or somewhere at the foot or head of them (the cords could be very hazardous). Strangely, you only heard your own alarm clock every morning--I have no idea how I tuned the rest out, but I did. You were only allowed to push snooze one time out of courtesy for your neighbors (The fraternities had their pledges do "wakes"--they had a list of what time to come wake up the actives, which was pretty interesting if a girl was shacking with them.). Also, it was chilly up there in the winter because we always had one window cracked (to keep the air flowing supposedly), and "warmish" in the fall. People were actually sick less frequently by using the rack room than they were if they shared a sleeping room with a roommate--it seemed like the whole air-flow thing may actually have had a purpose.

To answer the other question--when you shacked at a fraternity (since no guy ever would shack at a sorority!!), you either stayed downstairs in his room or he would put up blankets and sheets around his rack for a little extra privacy.

Oh yeah, I forgot about wake-up duty. I've seen it where some places have a "map" of the racks on the door to the cold air room. Each bed on the sheet had the name and the time that person wanted to be woken up. I think generally it was every half hour or so from 5:30-7:00. After that you were on your own.

Racks? Wake-ups? Sounds like Army basic training to me! LOL. I've never heard of these sleeping porches but the logic would be that you'd get sick a lot but having the air circulating constantly sounds like it takes care of that problem pretty well...

I've never heard of these. Anyone have a picture?

Wow, I always thought sleeping porches were a very common arrangement. I guess not!

ETA: Here's info. with a photo of a porch at the UW Alpha Xi Delta Web site: students.washington.edu/alphaxi/recruit.php

ETA again: More photos here from an AGD chapter site: agddeltatheta.com/workpartypictures.htm

My house had a warm air dorm (windows closed) and a cold air dorm (windows open). Most of the problems with illness came in the warm air dorm.
I agree with others that sleeping in the cold air dorm was a great sleep. My bed was right next to the window, but I was never cold. Everyone had electric blankets in the winter. I would liken it to getting in a hot tub in the winter. You are warm, but still have the cool fresh air to breathe.
We had wake duty so alarm clocks were not an issue. You also did not have to fight with your roommate about what time the lights went out.
Lastly, were were not allowed to have guys above the first floor so shacking up, not an issue.

I loved the sleeping porch until I had a single room - and then I slept in there (even though I wasn't supposed to).

Though I think the last straw was when someone threw up on the porch - I was not amused (though she did apologize for waking me up...)

How many people sleep in these things?

I mean, we don't have sleeping porches...but several of the houses have rooms with ALOT of people in 'em. Tri-Delt (I believe) has a 9 girl room.

I've seen them primarily in the midwest (old Big 8 schools) where a fraternity is a living option as much as a social one. Capacities ranged from 50's-70's. And you'll probably see the fraternities recruit the same number of men each year +/- 1 or 2 men. Beds need to be filled. And they usually have a good summer rush program.

Seems like the fraternity houses at Indiana (and other Big 10 schools have them). I know the Sigma Nu house at IU houses 70. No way that have that many rooms in that house.

Yeah, several of the old Big 8 schools definitely have them. At Nebraska they've fallen decidedly out of favor, and I can only think of one sorority that still uses theirs. There might be one or two fraternities that do, but I doubt it.

I've been in open airs at Iowa State (Beta), K-state and Kansas (several different chapters).
When I went to UIFI, the ADPi house at Indiana had an open air. I'd assume the others did too.

An ex-gf of mine went to UWashington in Seattle and quit recruitment when she found out about the open airs, so at least several of the sororities up there have them.

Yes, several of the sororities and fraternities have sleeping porches at UW. A friend of mine that attended school in Oregon also had a sleeping porch in her house. Everyone I've known that had them grew to love them.

Well, this girl was a princess to the nth degree...there's absolutely no way she would have grown to love them.

most sororities at Washington State had them as well. I know one house that was built in the early 90's doesn't and that another house remodled and now have a number of rooms with about 10 people each instead of one big room. Fraternaties, I think most have them, but I did not go into all the fraternaty houses, at least not the sleeping part.

Almost all the sororities at Indiana have cold dorms. I can only think of a few that don't - or didn't at the time I rushed. (Chi O, DZ, KD, ZTA, AEPhi, and I think the new AOPi house)

The only IU fraternities I know of that have them are Acacia, Sigma Chi, Fiji, and Pi Kappa Phi (which is in the former Sigma Kappa house).

Sleeping porches are not uncommon in houses (and I mean private homes) built in the 1880s through, oh, the 1940s. This was before air conditioning. The sleeping porch was a screened porch furnished with what we might call daybeds. In the summer, you'd go out there where it was cooler to sleep.
Older Greek houses in the South often have them. I loved ours, which was on the 3rd floor where there were no rooms. We kept the windows open year round. Always quiet, always kinda dim. Great place to nap, or sleep late, without music and yelling etc. Daughter's sorority house had 2 on each floor, and they were a lot noisier. The rooms in both our houses had closets, twin dressers (all built in), a day bed and 2 desks.

I traveled for Sigma Nu as a Field Consultant in 1992-1993 and visited a couple dozen chapters. The only chapter house where I remembered a sleeping porch was at Oregon State.

http://oregonstate.edu/groups/sigman...serialNumber=1

I painted the laundry room pictured on the Alpha Gam site two summers ago, along with the help of a sister who works in my office. I remember it so well as we were explaining to an older alumna about why people thought we had interests in Bob Marley or Rastafarians due to our color combo of red, buff, and green, and she had never heard of Bob or Rastas.

Sleeping porches are in the majority at UI and Wazzu, and I think that they have pros and cons. My chapter has two porches, and I remember being told years ago that WaterChild's chapter house had two, and one was just for women who snored or talked in their sleep.

I have no idea what boys did when bringing women to their porch beds (my boyfriends lived off campus), but from what I was told people either just shacked up in public because they were d-runk and p-lastered, put up blankets or a sheet (butt hutt), or went to a room. I think only one fraternity doesn't allow women on their porch (Theta Chi), Farmhouse is in a converted dorm and has bedrooms, and Sigma Chi has apartments. Phi Delt may not have a porch and Sig Ep is porch free in their new place.

If I remember right when the Sigma Nus remodled over at Wazzu they put in heated floors for the porch.

We have four. It's a cool system, actually. Two porches are for your average sleepers, one porch is for girls that need the room to be extra quiet and whispering and other noises are strictly prohibited, and the fourth is the loud porch for snorers and those that don't mind late night singing and nonsense.

I took the tour many moons ago (2002) when I was considering UI, so it has definitely been awhile. I do remember the amazing salad bar, and a room down in the basement for seniors that they could sleep in. Oh and the bathroom had a cute sea design, which I later figured out was DUH nautilus shells.

Oh, really? That sounds adorable. We don't have nautilus shells anymore, they're just plain blue/yellow.

My daughters' camp, Skyland Camp for Girls, in Clyde, NC was started by the great-grandmother of the current owners. She bought a hotel, turned it into a camp, and installed a sleeping porch on the 2nd story. Now all the younger girls store their things in the rooms, but sleep amongst the pine trees on the sleeping porch. (Older girls are in cabins). I always thought it was neat.

My initiation chapter, at U of A, has sleeping porches. If I remember correctly from what I was told, I think most of the sororities have porches. They do this because 1. total is high (I think it is around 180, but some chapters are well into the 200's, hence our chapter coming back early) 2. with sleeping porches more girls can live in the house. (But don't quote me on this I only know about my house a couple of others having porches)

Example, our house has 18 rooms. 1 room is for the president and her roommate. The upstairs has 17. While it would be cramped, the house would only hold 36 girls if they 'lived in' their rooms. (15 rooms could hold 2 girls, 2 could hold 3). The thing is, the rooms weren't designed to "live in". They were designed for the sleeping porch. With that being said, 53 girls could live in (upstairs). That gives the house more money. The only girl who got to sleep in her room was the president (and her roommate), everyone else was on the porch.

The rooms have(had) desks, closets, some had dressers and a daybed. The nice thing was that if you were tired, you could go up to bed and not be disturbed. But if you needed to be up late studying, you could do it without bothering your roommates. Plus, each room door had a white board on it, so you could let your roommates know if you were going to be up late studying or if you were sick. As for being sick, 17 rooms with daybeds, there would be a place to sleep. And if for some reason more than 17 girls are sick, well suck it up you'll probably get sick too :D

As for guys, not allowed in a sorority house. I remember when I was there, before you could bring a guy upstairs, you had to shout "man on the floor". Because you know in a sorority house we walked around in our bra's and underwear upstairs. :D

Waterchild- those would have been my kind of porches! I would need the porch for the light sleepers, because that is what I am :)

My chapter had cold airs. I loved them. The only thing I didn't like was that I would occassionally get snowed on in the wintertime, because my bed was by a window. (But then I'd just close it.) Our cold air dorm slept around 50some women. We had a small section that was supposed to be for the heavy snorers/talkers. We didn't do wake-ups, so we had alarm clocks. Then we had rooms that housed 2-5 women to keep all their stuff. Each of those also had a daybed in it.

As far as decorations - all I can remember is that the walls were dark blue. Sometime during my undergrad we also installed 3 air conditioners so that for the first month or so when it's still hot in Iowa, you can sleep comfortably.

No men allowed obviously. For the fraternities on campus that had cold airs, I remember my college boyfriend's fraternity just hung the "shacker sheets."

I was in a fraternity at Oregon State, and I can confirm what one of the previous posts said about a chapter there having a sleeping porch - because ALL the fraternities and sororities at Oregon State had sleeping porches.

I personally did not like our sleeping porch - I don't like open air while I sleep and our mattresses were crap. In terms of shacking we discouraged people from doing it on the porch; every study room had a futon or couch, and so people would do it in their rooms. Of course it happened once in awhile on the porch, sometimes on other peoples bunks, and that just made it more entertaining.

I was a Zeta at Indiana 88-91. We had a cold dorm on the 3rd floor.

The summer before my senior year (I think) they added on to the house, doubling its size. The "new wing"--had doubles, and everyone with enough seniority jumped at the chance to have a room in the new wing. Many of us were surprised at how much we missed the cold dorm, though.

For the person who thought Sigma Nu at IU must have cold or warm dorms...I don't know about now, but back then, the guys had "suites"--often two larger rooms (desk couches etc) with a very small "rack room" built into the suite (with just build-in bunks and a narrow space with enough room to get to their bed). No large dorms, though.

I've been upstairs at KU's Beta... A friend's cousin gave us a tour the first night we were allowed to go out after recruitment. Hmm, whoops. No one was home anyway.

None of the Chapters at my school have these. Do you get a room too or are girls assigned only to the sleeping porches. These sound pretty cool!

You get a room to keep your stuff in, and for studying, too. Most of the ones I've seen have desks and chairs, and I've been in some where the girls had futons.