[EE-BO]

Hard to say Tom.

The more alumni I speak to- the more they like the idea of moving further from campus- but in Austin that is very hard.

To the south of campus you have a lot of government offices leading into downtown plus a neighborhood of older homes zoned commercial, plus the ACC campus. So that is out.

To the West is Pemberton which is one of the 4 most expensive neighborhoods in Austin- every bit as pricey as West Campus and not a place where a Greek House would be tolerated.

To the North is a neighborhood growing in value at a very fast rate and where other past attempts by Greeks to move in have been vetoed.

And to the East you have ground zero for the gentrification war over Austin- and a fraternity moving into that area would find itself getting lots of negative publicity very quickly.

Going out further from there you are still in moderately expensive areas and very quickly saving a little money just isn't worth it since you are so far away from campus.

Frankly I think it might be healthy if the number of fraternities went down a bit more. Granted I don't want us to be a casualty, but while Greek Life at UT is running at 11% of students- that is reflective of an explosion in the number and number of members of multi-cultural or race-specific Greek organizations, offset by a pretty strong decline in the number of the more Anglo groups the average person tends to think of when they think "Greek".

I am not saying that to imply anything negative- but rather to further point out how the housing situation manifests itself in this.

A lot of these newer types of Greek organizations have a very different approach to their existence plus they are fairly new, so having that giant house on a hill- while something to strive for- is not an expectation or requirement for rushees. Members who go to those groups don't expect to have that. And so those groups do just fine in West Campus with a very small house holding just a few members, or with no formal house at all.

However, the kinds of organizations that composed virtually all of Greek Life here 10-20+ years ago DO have a history of being in a large house- and house size is a very important factor in rush. Housing costs are killing a lot of these organizations.

Add in the fact that UT admissions have become intensely competitive. Quite frankly, a lot of guys who would have gone Greek here 10-20 years ago in the Greek environment of that time are not so interested now because they are worried about the demands on their time.

The party kids who want to float through college on a 2.0 aren't coming to UT anymore. They can't get in.

They are instead going to Ole Miss, Alabama, Tech and other places (and it is not a coincidence that Risk Management incidents have skyrocketed at those schools while UT has actually become a lot calmer place.)

I see that as a good thing since it will be a good environment for chapters that adapt and take a more balanced approach while still having fun.

But even so, that still leaves the issue of perception versus reality when it comes to housing. I think many of the top fraternities here will keep their properties and prosper for a long time.

Yet I cannot imagine any new giant homes will be built from scratch for Greek use. The SAE rebuilding a few years ago was the last- and it had been decades since that had happened here anyway.