Sorority Pledges Living in the House?
 

Hey all! KillarneyRose de-lurking here with my most recent question about sorority rush...

Whenever sorority life is portrayed in books, movies, tv shows, etc., the girls always move out of their dorms into the sorority house once they become pledges. Does it really work that way? Are the dorm housing contracts written so that they can be broken if the girl accepts a bid?

The sororities at my alma mater have suites that can accommodate 20 girls or so, so there's no question of pledges moving in.

Second part of the question: if pledges really DO move into the house, what are the accommodations generally like? Sleeping porches?

Thanks ladies!

Haven't seen you on here in forever. Welcome back!!

While I have read the same thing in books, but to my knowledge, none of the Florida college campuses allow new members out of their dorm contracts, and even if they did, there would not be room for them in the sorority houses. The houses are full at the beginning of the school year and contracts for the next year are signed sometime after school resumes in January.

As with anything, a lot depends on the campus and whether or not the chapter facility as room.

There were girls (especially sophomores) who wanted to move in right away after recruitment. Some were living in temp housing, some in residence halls, some with friends. In the case of the girls living in the residence halls, they did have to break their housing contract. Some chapters may help pay a percentage of that fee (they stand to receive more money by the girl living in the chapter facility so they consider helping with the breaking of the contract is better for them in the long run). I think 10-15 years ago, the fee for breaking a residence hall contract was also based on how long you actually lived in the residence hall - the shorter time you were there, the less you had to pay. Of course, they wised up and now it's either the full amount or a flat fee.

As far as our chapter, we didn't have cold airs, so everybody slept in their rooms - new members included. New members moving in usually got whatever rooms/beds were left over, so they didn't get a choice of which room they had or if/who their roommates where. I think it was the same for other chapters on campus - whether they had cold airs or not - new members moved into whatever rooms were available.

At Illinois, you could break your dorm contract and move in second semester, provided you were taking the place of someone moving out of the house for an approved reason. Approved reasons were study abroad, student teaching/co-op that was not local, medical reasons, leaving school, marriage, graduation, and moving back into the dorms.

Otherwise, there would be a fee, but usually the house corp paid the fee, because it was better to do that then to have open spots in the house.

We had private bedrooms at my chapter house, but many of the sororities have dorms.

When the Greek Village was built at South Florida, they let the NMs move in right after recruitment. The reason was because so many had empty rooms due to women resigning rather than move in when they had never had live in before. I don't know it there is still a need for this there though...

KillarneyRose, good to see you back! :)

Back in the day at MIT, all freshmen and transfers were assigned temporary dorm rooms. They then immediately (almost as soon as they set foot on campus) went into fraternity, sorority, independent living group, and dorm rush. (Most of the independent living groups are coed and local.)

If you signed with a fraternity or ILG, you immediately moved into the house. Freshman accommodations were generally quads, from what I saw, except for one ILG that had a sleeping porch for everyone. If you joined a housed sorority, you stayed in the dorm, as there were more sisters than beds in the houses. If you joined an unhoused sorority, obviously you stayed in the dorm.

You notice I mentioned dorm rush. Freshmen and transfers also got to visit the various dorms on campus and then rank-order them. This happened concurrently with FSILG rush. So unless you KNEW you didn't want to go greek and decided to focus solely on dorm rush, you were pretty busy during those few days! Those people who did go through FSILG rush were also encouraged to go through dorm rush, just in case they didn't get a bid to a fraternity or ILG.

All freshmen were required to live in "campus approved housing", which included dorms and FSILG houses, unless they commuted from their parents' home (which was pretty much unheard of).

Policy has since been changed. Now, all freshmen must live in dorms. I don't know what happens if a sophomore/junior/senior pledges a GLO and wants to move into the house immediately (i.e. if they have to break a contract, pay a fine, etc).

Once upon a time I went through rush (not recruitment). Rush was held the week before the dorms opened so the school opened one dorm for rush. I was going to move into my dorm after rush was over and the other dorms opened. I accepted a bid and immediately broke my contract and moved into the dorm. This was possible as there was a waiting list for the dorms so the school was VERY happy to accommodate those who found other housing.

Our house had a big room downstairs in which 8 pledges (not new members) were able to live. There were only 5 of us living in the room my first semester. We moved upstairs at the beginning of our second semester.

DaffyKD

As a University of Washington sorority alumna, I love this aspect about UW's greek life! It's really a crazy, overwhelming, awesome experience opening your bid card and hauling all of your belongings to the chapter house only a half an hour or so later (with your new sisters' help of course). Funny thing is, a lot of people at UW assume that it is this way everywhere else.

And, while I'm gushing about how I love greek life at UW, I just wanted to show everyone how beautiful the houses are and why it is so special to move in right away. Here are some highlights:

Here is Chi Omega's house- I believe it is the largest fraternal structure west of the Mississippi
http://www.uwpanhellenic.com/profiles/chiomega.php
Sigma Kappa's house is a national historic landmark
http://www.uwpanhellenic.com/profiles/sigmakappa.php
Pi Beta Phi
http://www.uwpanhellenic.com/profiles/pibetaphi.php
Delta Zeta
http://www.uwpanhellenic.com/profiles/deltazeta.php

OK, I have to be Debbie Downer. What happens if someone depledges? Can you get back into a dorm or are you screwed?

From what I have seen, usually new members don't depledge. Usually it is all or nothing- they decide to move in, or they don't accept their bid when they receive it and don't move in at all. But, I suppose it happens every now and then, and like girls who drop out of recruitment, don't get a bid or are released, the woman can get temporary housing until a room opens up in the dorms.

I suppose one advantage of not having a house is the ease with which new members can move onto sorority halls after recruitment from the dorms. None of the halls ever fill up completely for the fall, and recruitment is held two weeks after school starts. Housing allows new members to move onto sorority halls, they just have a certain time frame in which they must do it. I moved onto the sorority hall the day after accepting my bid.

A Fundamental Experience...
 

At my school, if a house was not full, it would let Freshman move in. My chapter did. I chose not to move in my Freshman year.

I personally believe that living in the dorms is a fundamental experience. You may not like it, but, at least you had the experience to know if you liked or did not like it. I feel that by going straight the chapter house, women are being deprived of this experience.
It is an opportunity to make new friends outside of the sorority. Hence, it can prevent "sorority tunnel" vision where that is all one sees is the sorority. It is a method of getting away from the sorority. After all, women will have four years to be with their sisters, but, only one in the dorms.
I made a ton of friends in the dorm.

Had I moved straight into the chapter house, I would have never made them. To this day, I am still friends with those from my dorm. Years later, one even helped me get an interview with his company.
After all of these years, I still remember the countless fire alarms, bomb threats, pranks and traveling over an hour to get to get liquor, underage! I will never forget my third night in the dorms; cramming 20 people in a tiny dorm room to watch the movie Heather's and eat Lucky Charms!
I will never forget the guys of 3C and 2N.

Rush at Idaho is before school starts and women move in on Bid Day as they are temporarily housed in the dorms during rush. In the past women have lived in the dorms if there is overflow, but having the freshmen fill the house makes it easy for older members to move out into apartments and it isn't hard to find an apartment in Moscow at all.

All of our current nine houses have sleeping porches, and I assume Delta Zeta will design their forthcoming home the same way. Delta Zeta has their own space in the dorms until they have their building constructed, and I don't think they have broken ground yet. Though I don't know the inner details of every chapter, as far as I know it was common for new and some current members to change rooms every so often during the school year to get to know more women and I secretly think to make them clean their rooms regularly ;) As of fall 2010 all freshmen at Idaho are required to live on campus, which includes Greek housing.

In previous overflow situations it wasn't only new members living in the dorms, some older members would go with them, and meals were eaten at the house, the meal plan was waived. Though dorms have people sleeping in their rooms and not porch style, one dorm had suites where the beds were in between with the bathroom. There would be a rotation of women into the house from the dorms and usually at semester/mid year women would move out for study abroad, practicum, internship, flunking out, and graduation. Though there may be individual organizational rules against it, being in the dorm wasn't completely undesirable as one could legally have alcohol if they were 21, sometimes less people fighting for the bathroom, and in some cases closer to classes. I'm sure there are probably stricter alcohol rules than in the past if it is a designated sorority floor or a mix of upper and lower class women.

Unlike a lot of places there is no housing crunch on campus or in town for traditional undergraduates so older girls can willingly, easily and happily get an off campus apartment and make room for new members to move in. Students are told to not sign housing contracts if they plan to rush, and since freshmen are required to live on campus there are not left homeless. If any student leaves Greek housing after school starts they will be given on campus housing if they are freshmen, or like I mentioned, can move off campus. There was a massive resort like complex built on the south edge of town that is fully furnished and rather popular, so there isn't a problem of living without furniture until it can be bought or brought from home.

I'll honestly say I am not a fan of rush before school starts nor freshmen moving in on bid day. I see a lot of benefit to having all freshmen (men and women) live in the dorms the first year and then move in as sophomores if delaying rush would be an unacceptable idea. As a campus we're damn lucky that the administration will include and allow Greek housing to be approved for freshmen as many places it isn't.

At USC, there are only two houses where freshmen can move in immediately to the best of my knowledge, my house and another. No one from my (fall) pledge class moved in that semester, though one girl did move in for the spring semester. Also, one girl who had been living in the house for a year and a half, I think, pledged in the spring, along with a spring admit who had just moved in. Our house is in a unique situation, though.

I really liked my roommate so I decided to stay in the dorm all year, and I really enjoyed that experience. All the same, I'm still super excited to move into the house this fall!

What happens if the new member decides it isn't for her and drops? I imagine that could lead to some horrendously awkward situations, for all parties involved.