Sorority Housing
 

At my university we currently have no type of housing facilities for our sororities. We are a small greek life community with only 3 sororities on campus with each about 60-80 members. Our university is growing and so is our Greek Life and we are ready to get some kind of sorority facilities. A lot of our girls are interested in a lodge of some sort for each of us, but I continue to hear of the outrageous costs to build one. Another idea is of a sorority dorm (which we once had but it sadly burned down 20-30 years ago and have never been replaced) but many of our girls live in apartments and are not interested in moving back into a dorm setting. Which gives the idea of on campus sorority apartments? I've been looking a lot into this and I'm curious on what other campuses without actual sorority houses do or even floorplans of your dorm/apartments/lodges! Any feedback is appreciated!

You really need to chat with your GLO's regional or national director of housing. Besides being able to help you work with the university administration, which you would need do, they can also tell you if there is an "NPC Housing Compact" in effect for your campus. And also any requirements your GLO may hae with regard to housing. That could impact any housing options as well.

What we did...we had what was called The Rock Apartments- on campus apartment complex with townhouse apartment style units, each housing 4 people. Back in the day (2001) this was a new concept, but from what I hear they are building these left and right on campuses nowadays. Anyway. We had "unofficial" sorority housing- we had 3 total apartments in adjacent buildings, 4 girls in each. When the girls went to sign up for the apartments, they asked if they could be in adjacent units, and once they got in, they "passed it down" through the classes. People sometimes don't want to live in the Greek house, but for us, it was a big, coveted thing when a spot came up. (Our dorms were pretty terrible, though!) The whole "spot" thing can cause some issues, we just did it on a "next come next serve" basis, but I suppose for a larger group you could do a lottery?

Now that I think about it, some of the NPC girls had a similar arrangement off campus in another apartment complex. Not exactly a "house" but a way to ensure there's always a sister around if you need to talk...study...or just watch a movie. It was also very useful for things like Homecoming float- a lot of the group was already in one place, there was extra room to do things like that, and the girls hosting could make some food for everyone. We did other stuff in the apartments too, from "family" get togethers to making our "pledge books" or decorating things for other events. (Ten, eleven years out, I don't remember specific events, just lots of glue guns, fabric and puff-paint letters! And cookies!)

Anyway good luck and hope you can figure something out!

I believe that GLOs have blocks of on-campus apartments at Florida Southern College. I'm sure there are other campuses that do as well.

The sororities and fraternities at the University of Pittsburgh's Johnstown campus have lodges. I think they are just directly off campus (i.e. next to the campus but not technically on it).

Your national may not be too keen on the off-campus apartment situation. If it is directly associated with your sorority (that's the apartment where the Alpha Betas live) if something happened, headquarters could be at risk. Although I'm sure it happens a lot, I would definitely involve your alumnae to make sure you're not upsetting the old broads.

Remember that your housing corporation can help with the money. It's not like you'd be expected to come up with 1/60th of a 2 million dollar house. The house would have a mortgage, just like any house, that is covered by your national. How you get the money you need will vary based on the school and your sorority, but if all parties agree a house is warranted, you'll get the money.

It's very exciting! I would shoot for houses that hold 30-35 comfortably (room to squeeze as you grow or a back yard to extend into), and somewhere that all 3 chapters can build simultaneously and be approximately the same size. If you are growing, building room for a couple more chapters wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, but that would require real support from the school.

Being someone who lived in my chapter house for 3 years, I definitely have a bias toward having a full-service house. I loved having all the girls there with me day in, day out. Good luck!

Thanks for your feedback!

I have been talking with our advisors and the administration and they are open to looking into options for us. They are pretty much 100% for on campus dorms over lodges because of the expenses, and the fact that they can still make money off of us in a dorm room. Now the new discussion is more of on campus apartments over dorms with chapter rooms on each floor, study rooms, etc.

Does anyone have any floorplans or an idea of things you would include in a complex like this?

And also, how would we work out the ever challenging privacy issue with all sororities being only a floor apart from each other?

I think your project would be strengthened if you included the other two sororities in your planning -- the chapter leadership and advisors, and also their national housing corporation people. That planning could also include expansion of your panhellenic. If you have a brand-new Panhellenic dorm with three wings for three chapters, any additional chapter would be at a disadvantage.

Central Missouri and Memphis State have Panhellenic dorms. At least they used to. I believe that Auburn has only ever had chapter suites.

Good luck!

Don't worry about the privacy. A lot of sororities are right next door to each other (Tri Delta and us shared an alley), and although we were able to get the gist of what was going on, nobody cared enough to really try to probe. I mean really, do you care what their ritual is?

Is there an Auburner here who can speak up? Do you have sleeping rooms or just meeting space? I could picture some lovely communal living environments that aren't too terribly cinder-blocky. I would bet if the university is offering you dorms that is what your national is going to be all over. It costs nothing to the sorority, eliminates a huge amount of liability, and there's no long-term risk as far as what happens to your property if the chapter folds.

I'd get together with the other chapters and start researching some really cool dorm environments to emulate. Penn State is one to add to the list. If you are very panhellenic about it I bet you will get easier support from everyone involved, including the people with the money.

Auburn's floor plans are available on their web site. They are super luxurious -- I'd have killed for this in college!

https://fp.auburn.edu/housing/village.asp

I use to work as a regional volunteer with the AOII chapter at ULM. I know about 2 years ago the ULM Administration was waiting until all 3 sororities were financially ready for housing. I would get with Fraternity Sorority Advisor (I believe Keith is still in that position) and talk to him. Maybe even schedule a meeting with advisors, presidents, etc from KD, AOII, and Phi Mu. I would also keep things in mind like most ULM students are from the Monroe area so they might not want to live in sorority housing. However, a lodge or a suite in a dorm might be more ideal.

Dear OP, these are amazing. I'd be fighting for something like THIS and there's a lot of room for compromise since these are so over the top.

I have been in contact with all above and everyone is pretty much on board on helping us get something! Now we are just looking at all of our different options!

And the Monroe area thing is one of our biggest problems right now, many of our girls are leaning towards a lodge because of this, but our advisors don't believe it is feasible financially.

-Our advisors main point is that a sorority dorm/apartment would be the first step. We expect our greek life to grow with this new housing option and if that is the case we may be able to eventually afford lodges.

On that note I love the auburn apartments! I have a meeting with Keith tomorrow and I'm going to present the idea of a smaller version of those!

What is a NPC Housing Compact?

Grrrr. I searched high and low for the link to the Penn State sorority dorm floors and I couldn't find it anywhere. I sat there and took a "virtual tour" with my niece not too long ago and I can't find that site now. Maybe someone from PSU can enlighten us?

Anyway, good luck! I never got to live in "our sorority" apartments (I transferred) but it sounds like an amazing experience.