[SWTXBelle]

I attended my school just as Greek housing became a part of Greek life. For the longest time the University said no to sorority houses. Delta Zeta basically just said, "Tough Darts, Farmer" and bought a beautiful Victorian. I think they were punished for a semester or two, but at the end of the day, they had a house, and the rest of the sororities had to play catch up. Delta Zeta still has a gorgeous house - they've added to it over the years. Chi Omega has a lodge, but to tell you the truth they are strong enough that it really doesn't matter that they can't house any girls. Alpha Xi Delta had a real renaissance because they were the first to build a house - it really helped them forge an identity. I'm not as familiar with the Zeta, Delta Gamma and ADPi houses - there is one Victorian that was DG, but is now ADII, Delta Gamma has a house which I've never seen, and Zeta has a nice house near A Xi D. I know AOPi was on campus and at one point had two houses, but for whatever reason they did not last very long. For the last 20 years there has been talk of a Greek Park, but so far it has come to nothing. Many of the older fraternity houses and a few of the sorority houses are in neighborhoods that the University may well need to expand. Our old house is right next to parking lots that used to be the TKE and Kappa Sig houses. Because the Kappa Alpha house is in-between the university and our old house, so far it hasn't been paved over. But I'd be surprised if the KA and old Gamma Phi houses weren't eventually sold to TX State. I would LOVE to see a Greek Park/Village kind of thing, and it may happen someday. The next sorority to come on would, I think, need to be committed to providing housing.

As to how big a part housing plays at TX State - well, the NPCs have been around only since the 60s,(sororities were local before that), and housing has only been a concern since the late 70s. It's tough to say what impact actually buildling a Greek Park/Village would have. Housing is a problem, so it might be that providing housing could positively impact the popularity of Greeks.