What if they don't want to live in house?
 

Do chapters ever experience this?

How do you deal with it?

Plans are almost finalized to purchase a house on campus for my chapter and now brothers are hesitant:

"I might be abroad next year".

"I want to be with my girlfriend and have privacy".

"I want a pimp apartment".

This is ridiculous and it's pretty offensive when the price for something like this is 7 figures.

I've asked them to consider forcing pledges to move in.

-Rudey
--Any thoughts?

I am working with a chapter in a similar situation right now, although we'll be renting and not purchasing. I was worried about those issues and met with them to tell them all the cons of having a house and said that they needed to vote whether to continue with the plans. I instructed them that if they would not be willing to live in the house to say "NO" and if they were willing to move in that it would be a "yes" vote. I would get them to vote one more time before it's a done deal.

We develop bylaws for who has to live in.. specific officers first. Then, based on a point system. Whoever has the highest points (based on activities, offices held, class year, GPA, etc) can choose to live in first and is forced to live in last. So, if we have more women who want to live in than we have rooms, the people with the highest points get first choice. If we don't have enough voluntarily live in, then the ones with the lowest points are forced to live in.

As for making new members live in, this depends on whether they'd be able to break leases/'housing contracts that are already signed.

Dee

That sounds pretty messed up dude... I know that I'd be offended... Purchasing a house is a HUGE deal and it is something everyone should want to be a part of... I think that part of brotherhood means sticking together and being loyal to your group... They made the decision to join the fraternity, and should want to be a part of its expansion.. I'm thinking its a question of loyalty.. Don't really have any advice to offer, I'm just a little shocked at reading this... Just figured i'd throw down my opinion...

Hope everyone comes around and everything works out alright...
Take it easy,
-Matt

Does your Nationals have rules because we do.......

Technically all Gamma Phi collegians must live in the house as long as the house it not at occupancy.

The chapter I advise does a "points" system to determine who gets first choice in whether to live in or not (I think this is pretty standard). They get points for showing up for things (and for their class rank, etc) and the more points they have, the better their position in the "line" to get to choose.

Usually those with more points are seniors so they choose to live out. The points also allow them to choose the better rooms in the house.

Check your University rules because there might be something they have to say about it as well. As an example, I know of one school who says all freshman MUST live on campus (well most require this part) BUT they don't consider the fraternity/sorority houses "on campus housing".

This is how we - and most houses on campus - did it as well.

This as well.

Sororities at IU, at least when I was there, required members to live in for a certain amount of time. Usually it was 2 years, some houses required 3. (I am going to assume they made exceptions for sisters studying abroad, doing internships, student teaching or anything else that required them to be away from campus for a semester or a year.) The houses there are ginormous though. I am not sure if that's changed...maybe someone who is currently at IU can tell me. :)

My chapter actually went through this whole ordeal on housing two years back. Many other sororities have been going through the same thing too. Which prompted the school when building the new houses on campus to decrease the amount of rooms. I dont want to go into specifics though bc well it was really an inside problem that was taken care of.

Total overall on campus had gone down with the increase in the amount of sororities since they built the houses and such. Plus, we had been taking a lot of sophomores. This was creating a problem bc most of them already had apartments when they joined so they didnt want to give these up.

Now we tell pnms during recruitment straight up that we have a housing policy and that everyone must live in the house at least one year. We also put it in positive light as well. The problem has gone away now ecspecially since numbers have been going up and we have tried to focus on taking freshman mostly.

I believe at West Ga they school requires that you pay for about 25 beds a year, so if not many girls do not sing up then they have to raises the dues. (its a dorm hall that all 6 live in, each sorority gets it own floor)

So most chapter require that all officers live in (unless you live at home) and that every one must live there for 1 year.

rudey
 

the zta house at fsu has by-laws very similar to what agdee listed and the point system works nicely. officers(executive council)are required to live in, then it works on a point basis. rooms are also chosen, with the exception of the president's, on a point basis. the president has a room to herself. of course, the sororities at fsu mostly have the opposite problem to yours -having too many sisters wanting to live in and not enough rooms!

i hope that your guys come around and realize that they have the rest of their lives to live in apartments, but only one chance to live in a fraternity house.

Our house corporation has to deal with this on a regular basis. People just don't seem as willing to share rooms, bathrooms, etc. as they used to. A lot of new university housing is catering to these wishes. People just don't seem to want to compromise their wants for the good of the group. I have also seen a lot of groups that have lost their houses because they overbuilt and then couldn't fill the house, thus defaulting on their mortgages. My recommendation is to never need more than 1/3 of your chapter to live in the house to be able to make the payments/bills.
Also, my alma mater has decided to offer two year housing contracts, where students who live in University housing the first year will pay the same rate the second year. Parents are all about the $$$ and commit to this contract before their son or daughter even start school. They can't break the contract, and they can't move into Greek housing until their junior year! Its a growing problem:(

I've herd from other chapter that they require at least 1 to 2 years of residency in the chapter house. Maybe you can do something like the new member requiring to live in the house for a year.

I can't do anything. I am an alum. I can organize for a very large sum to be organized, I can help create a corporation, I can probably even donate a bit - but I cannot require or force anyone to do what I want no matter what. And it's frustrating me to no end. No fraternity has found housing unless they were here for a century. Property values for a 5 bedroom are $1 million +. You would think these kids would wisen up. I've sent in the point and requirement suggestions to other members and to the undergrad listserv.

And Sikes, I promise you that no matter what you'd love to believe about brotherhood and all that, there will always be drama, there will always be differing opinions, arguments, fights, things that make you wish you could beat someone's head in and question why you joined. But at the end of the day you are at least given the opportunity to be in a position that let's you decide, argue, support your interests through a powerful organization.

-Rudey

Very true. Changing the by-laws of the chapter in the only thing i can think of. As for buying a house, does your national have a National House Corp that give out loans?

I think so but they are trying to move out more into local housing corps from what I see and I can't blame them. It rests the responsibilities on local chapters and doesn't all of a sudden make the national fraternity liable for defaults and empty rooms which so many fraternities suffer from.

-Rudey
--I'm not even sure if alumni can change by-laws...