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I have to say, it's an interesting conversation, but none of your suggestions are very pertinent. We don't have a national- we don't even have an alumni corp. Every decision is made at chapter meeting.
Our house is beautiful- I would argue it was the best house here until Theta Chi gutted and renovated their house. We have all the amenities the dorms do- high-speed internet, cable and telephones in the rooms, etc. The rooms are absolutely huge compared to the dorms, and it's cheaper to live in the house than on-campus or off-campus. I do not have a problem with too much noise or not being able to study- I actually have a problem with getting a little creeped out, because the place is like a tomb on weeknights. It's about ten minutes walk from the academic core of campus. It has a huge parking lot, and a huge backyard. The place is amazing- my parents not only don't have a problem with my living there, they wish they had something like it when they were at school (their college didn't have a Greek system).
The reasons given for not wanting to live there are either stupid- there's no smoking in the house, we have cable instead of satellite, it's too far from a particular department's building, etc.- or just wrong- it's too loud to study- or selfish- freshmen demanding singles that are reserved for officers or seniors. The only excuse I've heard that I can give an credence to is about the showers- we have a lockerroom style group shower, which doesn't bother me, but I can understand can bother some people.
We already HAVE a rule that says everyone has to live in the house unless it's full- and it's not full. Our house sleeps 22, but 16 is the minimum needed to pay the mortgage. We have 16 brothers eligible to live in the house, but only 9 of them will. And because the brothers refuse, the pledges think (correctly) that they can get away with it too.
This semester, we had 9 brothers in the house, along with 6 boarders (whom I overcharged, massively). For the spring, we're sharing the house with Sigma Tau Gamma, on the theory that living with another fraternity will be better than living with GDI's- at least they'll do their share of the chores. I know I will never, ever get parlor fees through, because the out-of-housers will threaten to walk- and while I think that'd be just fine, most of my brothers don't. (Never a year goes by when we aren't stupid about money- this semester we underestimated our budget by about $1000- no Christmas formal for us.)
This is one of those times I wish we had a national, because at least I'd have someone to make into a scape-goat- I don't enjoy always being the heavy.
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