[KappaKittyCat]

Okay. I've been watching this board for the past few days, ever since KappaStarGirl alerted me to the discussion taking place. As a current active on the campus in question, I feel that I should clear some things up.

1) As of the 2002-2003 school year, all groups wishing to have a small house must apply under the terms of Formal Group Housing. This applies to everyone, from Fraterities & Sororities to the Outdoor Recreation Club and the Ultimate Frisbee Team. If granted, an FGH contract is good for three years, after which the group will be given the opportunity to re-apply. In order to stagger the re-application dates for years to come, in this first year of FGH's implementation, each group granted an FGH contract drew out of a hat whether its contract would go for one, two, or three years.

The Fraternities are no longer guaranteed housing in perpetuity, as KappaStarGirl said. Neither are they guaranteed that an FGH contract would place them in "their" house. The university is most likely going to raze two of the houses on the Quad to build a new student center.

2) The original plan was that all three sororities would get together and apply for a Panhellenic house. This would be a good way to ensure equity and promote Greek unity, and everybody was excited about it. Another benefit to having a Panhel house would be that, because we'd be living under the supervision of the university, we'd be just a bunch of Greeks occupying the same house. Panhel has no housing rules, and as it would not be a Kappa house or an ABC house or an XYZ hosue, none of the national housing visitation/alcohol rules would apply. ABC pulled out at the last minute and applied for their own house, offending a lot of people in the process.

3) FGH selection took place this year in May. Each of the five fraternities, as well as "ABC," the sorority in question, received FGH contracts. Other groups granted FGH include Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia (a men's music fraternity), a music performance group, and the Outdoor Recreation Club. Furthermore, each fraternity was placed in the building that it has called its own since the 1950's. Interestingly enough, the two fraternities whose houses are scheduled for demolition drew one-year contracts, the other fraternities drew two-year contracts, and everyone else drew three-year contracts.

Each group applying had to meet the following criteria:
A) student-governed
B) minimum membership of 11 and 90% occupancy of the house
C) history of active membership and responsible leadership; at least two generations of leadership within a governance structure consisting of more than one student
D) clearly articulated mission statement consistant with that of the university; explanation of how communal living will enhance fulfillment of that mission
E) an organizational and governance structure through which the responsibilities of maintaining the residence, coordinating outreach/service activities, educating the members about appropriate behavior, and organizing and managing group activities can be fulfilled; a clear plan for the recruitment of new members and leadership selection
F) planned campus/community outreach
G) faculty or staff advisor and (if possible) strong alumni support

The GLO's all applied under the auspices of their national organizations. They cited their philanthropies and social events as campus/community outreach. Their mission statements were the national ones, as were their provided codes of conduct and leadership selection. Their recruitment plans were detailed descriptions of Rush/Formal Recruitment. Each group certainly cited its strong alumni support in its application. In no way did ABC chapter hide the fact that it is a GLO in this process, nor was it overlooked by the FGH committee. This house is now known as the "ABC House."

4) Current Panhellenic bylaws provide that if each group is elligible to apply for FGH, any or all may do so. The original idea was to place an all-or-none clause in the bylaws, but that was scrapped for fear of all three groups' being turned down on the basis that the university did not want to grant housing to all of them. Since FGH has been granted to ABC chapter, the following changes are going to be added:
A) Letters may not be displayed on the house or in common areas until after FR.
B) No freshman women are allowed in the house until after FR.
C) All recruitment activites and chapter activities must take place in the chapter room of the Panhellenic Wing or in another appropriate place (i.e. a building lounge, where FR parties and COB events take place).

5) As far as I know, ABC's HQ allows for them to write their own visitation rules. What this chapter is looking at is something rather lax, along the lines of males' signing in and signing out. In terms of alcohol, I do not know. Knowing their HQ, my guess is that they will not be allowed to have alcohol in the house. As for their not having a house mother, because the house is university owned, the chapter is housed under the supervision of the university's Residence Life Department, so their HQ has waived the requirement for a house mother. The university will train a member of the house to be the Residence Life Manager and take care of those sorts of administrative and disciplinary things.

6) As it stands right now, XYZ is planning to apply for a house for 2003-2004. Kappa is debating. Right now our numbers are still low. We'd like to live in a house, but we feel that perhaps our chances in a deferred recruitment situation are better if we can place women in dorms containing freshmen. We all would like to live with our sisters, but I know that there is no way that Kappa HQ will lighten up on the visitation policies, and there will doubtless be a long debate on whether we would like to sacrifice our freedom.

7) You'd better believe that we'll all be camped out on ABC's door, just waiting for the rush infractions to pile up. *Evil Laugh*

Was this the right thing for ABC to do? I'm not sure. I don't think so. Will it hurt or help them in the long run? I'm also not sure about that. This coming year is going to be a whole lot of wait-and-see. I do think that sorority housing in general will beef up the image of the sororities on campus and hopefully encourage a bigger turnout at FR. Any freshman going through FR would not be able to live in the house until the following year anyway, so if Kappa and XYZ plan to apply for housing for 2003-2004, it shouldn't make much of a difference. There's really nothing we can do about the situation now, so the best way to handle things is to look at it is as a test-run for sorority housing on this campus. We'll re-evaluate next year.

I hope that this has cleared some things up. I am still definitely looking for advice as to rushing tactics, etc. Thanks in advance for your input.