[crescent&pearls]

I share a lot of your same concerns wildcatfan. I don't know why living in a sorority house should ever be cheaper than living in a dorm- in most cases I've seen, sorority housing provides a much safer, more private, and higher quality living experience when you factor in services provided i.e. a house director, housekeeping, cooks etc. and the use of facilities that often include tv rooms, study areas, work out facilities and even pools! It seems to me that when there is a chapter house, the members who live in should pay the bulk of the expenses...but it often feels like the "live-outs" are subsidizing those expenses. Not that I'm saying live outs shouldn't contribute a fair share but we always have to remembers that we are competing for the same dollars our members can choose to spend on cell phones, text messaging, gym memberships, shopping, happy hours, movie tickets, spring break trips, semester abroad programs...and so on and so on and so on. We have to offer pretty amazing programming to our members and keep selling it to them (and their parents) in order for them to truly appreciate the value of the dollars they spend on their sorority membership.

Do I think it's worth it? Heck yeah I do. But it's sure not easy to compete for those dollars!

I do hope that all NPC orgs continue to expand to campuses that have unhoused greek systems, and that we all keep working on providing the potential for great membership experiences to women from all kinds of socio-economic backgrounds on all kinds of campuses!