[irishpipes]

University: University of Illinois (back in the late 1980s!)
Location: Champaign-Urbana, IL
Year Founded: 1867?
First Greek Chapter: Sigma Chi 1881. Pi Beta Phi 1895.
More commuter or more residential: Almost totally residential
Total Enrollment: 35,000-40,000
% Greeks: A whole lot
# of NIC Fraternities: 53 as far as I can figure
# of NPC Sororities 19
# of Locals 3 plus 4-H is housed as a sorority
# of NPHC groups 9 + 2 that may be locals?
# of Multi cultural groups ?
Wet or Dry Campus? Wet

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.)
As far as I know, all NIC and NPC groups are housed in traditional Greek mansions. Many use warm dorms and cold dorms, but not all. 4-H also has a house, so does Evans Scholars.

Are there plans for construction of Greek housing soon? I don't know

Do those with chapter houses have sleeping dorms, open airs, cold airs, porches, etc.? Some, not all


Parties thrown in the fraternity houses? Yes, but never in sorority houses

Your city easy on underage drinking? Pretty much.

Are bars in your city easy to drink underage in? The legal drinking age is 21, but the age to get into bars is 19. Once you are in, you are never carded. So, the drinking age may as well be 19. (This may have changed since I was there.)


Type of Fraternity Rush (Open, structured, summer, other) There are a zillion fraternities at U of I, and when I was there, they didn't all follow the same rush. Most had a structured rush in the Fall, and another rush later as well.

When Sorority recruitment takes place for your system: Fall. When I was there, it was the week before classes, and I had never heard of COB. Now, formal is a few weeks after classes start, and some chapters do COB.


Do Greeks run things at your school? Most definitely

Last Time Greek was Student Body President? Last time one wasn't would be a better question.

Last Time Greek was Homecoming King? Always
Last Time Greek was Homecoming Queen? Always


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)

We had 4 exchanges with fraternities each semester. We also had football block with a fraternity in Fall, and Atius with a fraternity in Spring. Homecoming was also a match up with a sorority and a few fraternities.

ETA: Back in the day, sorority Bid Night was also a social function with a fraternity. The fraternity would roll out the red carpet for the sorority members and pledges. For many people, this is their single best memory of Greek life. Of course it is gone now because there is no "Bid Night" to speak of, but rather a sisterhood night at the sorority house.

Good relationship with the University Administration? Don't know, but my guess is yes

Average dues associated with being in a chapter? More or less than living in Residence Halls? About the same when I was there, and chances are you would live WAY closer to your classes, because the Greek houses are older than most of the dorms, and therefore closer to the quad.

Hazing, common or uncommon? Uncommon for girls, not uncommon in some chapters for guys.



Any notable traditions for the Greek System? Football block, Greek Week, Atius (mom's day sing show) is huge. Also, Halloween at U of I is huge. It wasn't necessarily Greek though. I am sure that this has changed. It was way too fun to have survived. A block party with 50,000 drunk people wearing costumes was too good to last. The notable tradition at U of I is being Greek. It is a Greek school. Period.