Quote:
Originally Posted by 33girl
I think because housing is a big part of the Greek experience there and to not live in is kind of like not getting the full experience.
We had a chapter there and either didn't have a house or had a very small house. The chapter was only there like 5 years. So I've come to a conclusion that unhoused Greek life is not something students at IU want. If a group ever comes around that does sell itself as "be Greek without having to live in a house" my bet is that they won't rush with the other NPCs and will be looked at as second class citizens. And who wants that?
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I was at IU in the early-mid 90s. When I was a freshman, there were four sororities that were housed in a dorm (although the dorm consisted of several small buildings so each sorority had its own building). By my junior year, two of the sororities had built houses (Alpha Xi Delta and Alpha Delta Pi) and those sororities are still on campus today. The other two did not have houses and closed at the end of that year. I remember hearing that at least one of them had been wanting to build a house but they were not able to get any land near the University in order to do so. It really did put them at a huge disadvantage - the thought of living in a dorm (especially one of the furthest from any campus buildings) when all the other sororities on campus have these huge gorgeous houses was a turnoff to a lot of rushees. (I will admit I was one of them. Then again, I was turned off by the idea of sleeping in a cold dorm too.)
I would love to see more sororities at IU. I don't think that having alumnae support is going to be an issue. (All three of the sororities that closed in 1994 have multiple alumnae chapters in the state and two of the three have multiple college chapters in Indiana already) Unfortunately, I don't think that a new sorority would have the best chance to succeed if it wouldn't be able to have a house.
Interestingly enough, this does not seem to be a problem for fraternities at IU - there are several unhoused fraternity chapters.