Hi Eclipse,

Yes, the numbers can be staggering. That's part of the reason why it has been difficult to bring a new NPC on campus.

Corbin gave a good summary of the process. Most groups have their new members pay a one-time fee called a building/house fund fee. This fee can be as much $400 but I have seen it is low as $100. The first part is due with initiation fees and the next part can be paid the following semester. Alumni/alumnae members, parents, and anyone else can also contribute to the building fund.

Now in the case at LSU, the great majority of fraternity and sorority chapters had at least 50 years of collecting these types of fees before their houses were actually built. Therefore they had nice little nest eggs. A colony would need some time to collect enough funding to get a loan for just the down payment. As an example, to build a 12,000-sq. ft. house at $100/sq. would be $1,200,000 (the cost of the most recently built fraternity house) not including architect fees. A 30% down payment on that type of mortgage would be $360,000. If you have 150 colony members paying $300 each to the building fund, that only comes up to $45,000. Sometimes the national organization can guarantee everything until a local house corp. can get up and running. That's what my husband's national did when they came on but they were able to purchase a vacant house. They really, really wanted a chapter at LSU. However, not all national level housing corps can or want to invest that much into a colony and I have found that fraternities are in a much better position to do this then sororities.

Another big expense is furnishing the house. Remember that these are not typical houses. The kitchens must be commercial grade just like a restaurant so the stuff from Sears, like in my kitchen, is not going to cut it. They also have to meet current fire code with sprinkler systems and such. My husband's fraternity had to upgrade their system recently which cost about $30,000 and the kitchen needed rewiring because the new code had the electric sockets 3 inches higher than the previous code. Don't forget about landscaping too.

The colonization costs in general would include travel for the expansion team - airline tickets, hotel, meals, and car rental. Consider how many would be traveling, the length of stay and how often they would have to come back. Most of these team maybe unpaid volunteers but you do have to factor in the cost of their time. Then there are things like publicity, advertising, promotional pieces, mail-outs, receptions/dinners and phone calls. Think about recruitment but on a larger scale. Also include the costs to support the colony through chartering and its first couple of years as a chapter. It adds up.

FYI - AOII sold the house last month. Delta Sigma Phi was the most recent occupant. I am not sure if either they or the university purchased the house.