[PhoenixAzul]

University: Otterbein College
Location:Westerville Ohio
Year Founded:1847
First Greek Chapter: Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity (Country Club) (1908) and Sigma Alpha Tau Sorority (founded as the Owls Club in 1910)
More commuter or more residential: residential
Total Enrollment: around 3500
% Greeks: 28 percent
# of NIC Fraternities: 1
# of NPC Sororities: 0
# of Locals: 12
# of NPHC groups: 7
# of Multi cultural groups: 0
Wet or Dry Campus?: Dry campus, dry town

What type of housing arrangements does your system have (BE SPECIFIC - none, dorm floors, chapter houses close to/on campus owned by chapters, chapter houses far off campus owned by chapters, normal houses rented by chapters off campus, etc.)

+Chapter houses for all but 2 fraternities. Houses are Greek Designated and have been shuffled over the years. Some are owned by alumni and students pay rent to their alumn. Others are owned by the college and students pay rent to Otterbein.

Are there plans for construction of Greek housing soon? +No

Do those with chapter houses have sleeping dorms, open airs, cold airs, porches, etc.?

+Depends on the house. None have "sleeping porches", some have a porch, some of AC, all have basements.


Parties thrown in the fraternity houses?
+Yes.

Your city easy on underage drinking?
+No!! Super super tough on it due to the dry town policy.

Are bars in your city easy to drink underage in?
+No bars in westerville.


Type of Fraternity Rush (Open, structured, summer, other)

+Fraternity men may rush AT ANY TIME during the year (fall, winter, or spring). If they rush in Fall, they must be upperclassmen only. No one has done that lately. Rush is typically done in winter quarter, starting about the third week of winter quarter, and it is basically an open process (dry though). Some take classes in spring, but that is up to individual chapters to schedule and advertise.

When Sorority recruitment takes place for your system:

+Begins first week of winter quarter (first week of january) and goes for 3 weekends.


Do Greeks run things at your school?

+ I don't know about "run things" in terms of control what happens, but 99 percent of leadership positions are held by someone who is greek...but I think that is just due to the high percentage of students who are greek here.

Last Time Greek was Student Body President? Last year

Last Time Greek was Homecoming King? Last Year (Pi kappa phi)
Last Time Greek was Homecoming Queen? Last Year (Owl)


Describe your typical Greek social Semester?(Are they called mixers/parties/exchanges, must they be registered, how many do you have a semester, any other "greek" sponsored social outlets, is having a party with another house a common thing or a rare thing, describe as much as possible)

+Basically, what we call "mixers" are get togethers between chapters that are organized by social chairs and must be dry. They include things like bowling, pumpkin carving etc.

During pledging, most chapters attempt to mix with every other chapter in some way. Some fraternities and sororities have "switch days" where pledges are given big brothers/sisters of the other organization for a day to aquaint pledges with the other organizations on campus/ generally be goofy and have a good time. Switch days also usually involve some sort of mixer too.

Off campus parties (wet) were banned at the beginning of last year due to uncontrolled underage drinking. The risk management policy is being reworked to provide better guidelines for hosting these parties successfully.

All chapters have formals, typically in spring.

Good relationship with the University Administration?

+basically, yes. Some are very anti-greek, but others are extremely vocal alumns of our groups.

Good relationship with Greek Affairs/Greek Life?

+We got a new GL director this year...she's fresh out of grad school at BGSU, and I think she's still getting used to the local thing, being an NPC girl herself. But she's really young and very energetic and seems to be more in touch with what the chapters are feeling/needing/about. So far, I give her the thumbs up. You AOII's should be proud, she's one of yours.

Is your director of Greek Affairs Greek? From your Campus?
+Yes, she's greek, but not from Otterbein. She's an AOII. Our previous one was a DG. Several administrators and staff are members of our organizations though.


Average dues associated with being in a chapter? More or less than living in Residence Halls?

+Highest I believe is 70, lowest is 50 (or 45 depending on your GPA). I didn't factor Alpha Sigma Phi into this...they of course do their own thing and I don't have a clue what their dues are like.

Living in a house...depends on the house, but in general, it's slightly less than living in a dorm.

Hazing, common or uncommon?

+...Well, hazing in the NPC sense, yes. Hazing as in the abuse of people or alcohol? no.We use "pledges", not "new members". They may not wear letters until initiation. There are pledge "duties", both individual and class. We do scavenger hunts. We still exchange paddles shaped like paddles. There are mandatory study hours in the library.


Describe the types of philanthropies chapters do?

+Each chapter has its own personal philanthropy, ranging from Keep Franklin County Beautiful to Breast Cancer to Cystic Fibrosis, and then Greeks basically run the Blood Drive every quarter and have a competition to see which chapter can donate the most. There are "Greek wide" philanthropy events such as America Reads! and Adopt-A-School which are set up by panhel and IFC.


Any notable traditions for the Greek System?

+For being locals, all chapters are extremely old. Almost every chapter is close to or above 90. One is fast aproaching 100.

The fraternities and sororities are constitutionally bound to one another (brother/sister), often based on a historical link/event.

No NPC sorority has ever existed at Otterbein. Two NIC fraternities have been here...ATO in the 80's and early 90's, and Alpha Sigma Phi, which maintains a chapter here.

The current letters used are not the original founding names of each group. All were known by different club names before adopting greek letters, based on a greek ban that was instituted at OC's founding and remained until the 20's. Every group maintains their name in some way shape/form.

Kappa Phi Omega- Onyx
Theta Nu-Greenwhich
Sigma Alpha Tau-Owls
Tau Delta- Tomo Dachi
Tau Epsilon Mu- Talisman
(Rho Kappa Delta- Arkady) *disbanded for about a decade or so now, but making an attempt to reorganize!
Lambda Gamma Epsilon- Kings
Sigma Delta Phi (orig. Delta Sigma Phi, changed due to national fraternity name conflict)- Sphinx
Pi Beta Sigma- Bulls
Zeta Phi- Rats (originally Stars, I believe)
Eta Phi Mu- Jonda
Pi Kappa Phi (not the national)- Country Club

One of my chapter's original 10 founders is, at 103 (104?), our oldest living member.