urban myths
 

To play off the hazing myths thread. What are some urban myths (or possible myths) about your chapter of your sorority or fraternity?
***to PNMs these are going to be listed as urban myths, meaning at no time were these stories true unless listed as such!! **
For example, i know one urban myth is that our sorority house is haunted. Another urban myth is that we had a member about four years ago who worked at hooters and got kicked out of hte sorority for it!

Yeah our house is "supposedly" haunted by a teen that hung himself by one of the tree branches. Our house is 105 years old and is in the historical society. Whenever something goes wrong in the house, we blame it on the ghost.

At my alma mater, most of the sororities have a floor in an old dorm that was a hotel waaaaaay back when. When I was in school, the legend was that an actress or singer got dumped by her married lover and slit her wrists in one of the bathrooms on the 9th floor. Supposedly, she haunts the place but I've never seen anything although, granted, I hadn't spent too much time on that floor. I was safely down on 2!

Interesting! I never heard that one, but there was supposedly a butler who hanged himself in the closet in 1004. Some people swear by it, but in the year I had that room, there was no problem. People believe what they want to believe.

this isn't about our house but the Sig Ep house across the street. Rumor (not proven and very doubtful) is that it has a secret passage underneath it that was used as part of the Underground Railroad. My american history prof said it wasn't true though...

THAT would be totally cool!!! Especially knowing that Cinncinnati was a likely "stop" on the Underground Railway!

i got to school in Athens...i was born near cinci and raised there, but yeah i think it is really cool!

Since my school is surrounded by 3 cemeteries (in trivial persuit because of that fact)...it is rumored in our chapter that the last suite in our wing of the greek hall is haunted since it overlooks the cemetery right next to it...

I think there was a thread similar to this a loooooong time ago, and I posted the rumors that some of the sorority houses at UK (mine included) are haunted. I remember hearing something about a ghost boy in the basement of the Kappa house, but I can't remember what it was.

By the way, whoever said they liked ghost stories, I do too! :D

Urban myth for MANY chapters
 

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A BROTHEL LAW.

There may be zoning laws prohibiting sorority houses but if you check them out they prohibit ANY large group of unrelated students living together. It has nothing to do with women or brothels. The reason men sometimes have houses and women don't is that women sometimes weren't allowed by the college to move out of the dorms in the olden days - or the colleges were all male - so the men sucked up all the available land. By the time the college OKed the women moving out, no land was available.

Plus, Panhel regulations won't let one group get housing without all of them getting it (if it is sanctioned housing). THIS is most likely what prevents campuses from gettting sorority houses nowadays. There isn't enough room to move everyone out at the same time.

So, if you have ever had a school or town/borough/county official use the "brothel" story on you, please tell them to show you the exact law they are quoting...then you can laugh hard.

ZONING LAWS ARE NOT BROTHEL LAWS.

Re: Urban myth for MANY chapters
 

The story I heard about Miami Ohio isn't that there is a brothel law but that a benefactor of the university (a woman) would only continue to donate money if they agreed not to let the sororities ever have houses, mostly because of ffear of them becoming like a brothel, but that story doesn't indicate any sort of law.

Re: Re: Urban myth for MANY chapters
 

I'm pretty sure this is true for a handful of schools, although I don't remember which ones. We've discussed it before on the board. But yes, like 33girl said, "brothel laws" don't actually exist.

Our sorority house is theoretically haunted by a woman who lived (and died) there before it became a sorority house, but I've yet to see any evidence to back this up.

I suppose your History Prof might have researched this point, but it wouldn't surprize me if it were true. Athens was definitely a stop on the Underground Railroad -- although I don't know of any specific sites.

We won't even get into hauntings since Athens has been mentioned in several books as one of the most haunted sites in the world and has been the topic of several TV shows on the subject. (See other thread on hauntings)

I don't know why I'm telling this, because my mama would be furious, but...

She grew up in her granddaddy's (very large) house. They had heard, and family members had "seen" two different ghosts; one, a young woman, and the other, a priest. She & her next-elder sister shared a room, and after feeling a presence one night, they took turns sleeping at night - until the elder sister graduated from high school!

I can't even imagine being 4-5-6-16 years old, and so afraid of your own home that you or your roomie sits guard duty! She's afraid of the dark to this day!

Do we have any idea why Athens Ohio is so haunted? Sorry this is off the subject I was just curious. If someone wants to pm me that's fine :)