Semesterly Exchange at another College
 

Hey I wanted to get some advice from you guys on a situation that has me curious. I've been ghost reading this forum for years and figured here would be a good place to start. So here goes.

Next fall a fellow fraternity brother and I will be doing a one/two semester exchange at a school in the South. The fraternity we belong to has a chapter established at the school and we are curious as to what we should expect. We're not entirely sure if we should expect to be treated like non-Greeks while we are there, or if we should attempt to participate in our fraternity's local chapter.

Also:

When we were going through the process of applying for our exchange we were asked if we would be housing in our fraternity's local chapter at the school. We didn't really have a response at the time as we had never heard of people doing this. However, we're now at the point where we need to start deciding on our housing options and the prospect of living in our fraternity's local chapter house while were down there (and getting to know the guys and participating in the chapter.) is pretty intriguing to us.

We're just wondering if any of you had heard of anything like this happening before and if so, is it accepted or frowned upon in the South? We currently live in our chapters fraternity house, and we would love the opportunity to do so at another chapter during our exchange semester, but not if we would be trampling over toes or anything of the likes. (And to be honest we don't even know how we would potentially go about setting this up.)

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Have you tried calling the President and reminding him that you and the other brother are coming soon and are interested in housing? Maybe they forgot about your request.

I hope you get to live in and participate! Sounds like it would be fun. I loved going to visit other chapters when I was an active (although I never did so for an entire term).

One thing to be aware of:

For some chapters in the south (and perhaps many at larger state flagship schools/schools with long Greek traditions) the members only consider their fraternity brothers to be members of their own chapters, and not every member of the entire international organization.

I say that not to discourage you, but just to plant the seed that it may be that you are not welcomed with open arms. It wouldn't be a slight on you personally, but more just how those members view fraternity membership.

By all means contact the president of the chapter where you will be exchanging. That couldn't hurt at all, and best case scenario you will find another chapter of fraternity brothers and a place to live.

Best of luck.

"Semesterly"? No. It's not a word.

Yes, contact the president at the new school. But even if they have room and would agree to having you stay, you need to be prepared to have your current chapter certify that you are in good standing - all bills paid promptly and no social or other probation issues.

Yes, both of us are on good terms financially/socially/academically with our chapter. We've both had the opportunity to visit different chapters up here in the North and we've loved it so it's pretty exciting that we may have the opportunity to participate with another chapter on our exchange. We're going to be contacting the Chapter president down there in the coming weeks as we prepare for everything else.

One thing we're unsure of is should we be letting them know we're interested in housing in their chapter house before we get down there? Or should we plan to live somewhere else (Most likely a dorm) and see if they invite us to live in once we're already there? Neither of us know any brothers from that chapter so we want to avoid having our first communications with them come off as rude. At the same time we don't want to go through unnecessary steps of finding other housing if possible. Any advice on this would be great.

Is this an SEC school? Is yours a traditionally southern fraternity? Do you wear jorts, cargo shorts, Abercrombie and/or Ed Hardy?

Yes, the institution we are going to is an SEC school. As for our chapter, we our located in the midwest. We understand that fraternities in the south revolve heavily around tradition, which is why we started the thread in the first place. We don't want to go down there and be disrespectful to the brothers.

As for atire, no, we don't wear jorts, cargo shorts, abercrombie, ed hardy. Both of us have visited chapters in the south before and neither of us dress any more differently then two guys would in the same chapter down there (As you can imagine, we are in the minority in how we dress up here in the midwest.). The obvious exception is during cold weather.

I think you should start the conversation with the president with the fact that you are coming to their university for whatever length of time you'll be there and that you are interested in whatever they have to offer brothers from other chapters in this situation. Let him pose offers to you.

I have to agree with the first bit.
Sometimes people will be nice and polite to brothers from other chapters,
but let's get real. Fraternities hold different reputations on different campuses, and attract different type of people. Some times a chapter at a different school may well resemble one of the fraternities at your own school that you may dislike or make fun of.

My advice, get in contact with the president as soon as you can. Tell him you will be attending their school for a semester and leave it at that. maybe they'll bring it up at meeting, or they might invite you to stay with them.

Also keep in mind, that you may not end up liking them, and that could be awkward and could end up ruining your experience.

Best bet is to live in the dorms (which will most likely be close to the house anyways) and if they invite you to come out to events, then do so.

Just some other things. Remember, these guys don't know you, and their chapter may do things differently (maybe stuff they don't want you to see), and unfortunately in this day and age chapters may not want other chapters to know of their operations, especially if they think there is a chance a brother from another chapter may blow the whistle on something that for example may be borderline hazing.

I personally would love to be a part of another chapter's operations even if it was for a semester, but it's best to take things slowly I think, and let them invite you into their fold once they get to know what type of person you are.

Also, put aside the "will they like you" and there are more practical issues. If you're only there for a semester, housing contracts at the house may be for a year and someone only doing half of one would screw things up. Not to mention, there may be structures in place at the chapter for who gets what room due to seniority, offices etc.

If you hit it off and want to hang out with them great, but unless they come to you in some sort of bind ("dude, my big bro just eloped with Jessica Simpson and moved to Mexico and we have an empty room we need to fill") I would totally skip trying to live in the house.

After reading different threads in this forum about the differences in chapters between schools (especially between the Deep South and elsewhere), I think it would be kind of fun to see what would happen if two members of the same sorority, one from a huge chapter in the SEC or a comparable school, and one from an unhoused 25-member chapter from Podunk State College, switched places for a semester. Sorority Swap, anyone?

LOVE IT.

If it was a tv show, I would totally watch it.

IM in!!!