Sorority House or Suite

[meheron]

I was just curious what everyone thought of between the advantages and disadvantages of having a house or a suite. At Ball State the Frats get houses while the chapters get suite. They are long rooms or square rooms depending on the dorm your chapter is in with a living area, normally a computer area, a kitchen, a dinning room, and we have a TV area. Basically any sister can go there, bring friends, and study or hang out. We do have meeting but not a lot because our whole chapter does not fit in there very well.

When I first joined Theta I was an anti greek who was dragged by her roomate her sophmore year to go through the recruitment process. It was the best dicision I ever made but I know that I would have never joined if we had a house. I have more to say but Hum its finals week and I have a final in 25 min so I need to get. Please Respond!!!!

[SilverTurtle]

When I was in school, each GLO had it's own hall in one of the residence halls. We would paint our crest really big on it. You had to have a certain number of members living on the hall for it to officially be "XYZ"'s hall. The only exception was that APO didn't have a hall, probably because they're coed. But, Phi Beta is coed, and we did/do have a hall; it's a women's hall only.

In addition, each GLO has a "frat room" in the basement of the dorm that their respective hall is on. Some of those rooms are TINY. Ours was the second largest, which was nice. This is where we held meetings, ritual (sort of...), a few parties, etc. It's also where we store scrap books, mementos, our charter, ritual equipment.. that kind of thing. (And, over the summer, members store things like lofts and couches in there so they don't have to move them home. Another advantage of being greek )

Advantages to being in a dorm: you still meet folks outside the greek system, even your senior year. The halls aren't exclusive to GLO members, so there's always a few non-members on your hall that you get to know, and we ALWAYS got a new member or 2 that joined because they lived on our hall and had such fun with us!

Cheap, cheap, cheap!!! For me to pay both my national & chapter dues as a collegiate for an entire year was less that $150. Granted, I was paying dorm fees and for a meal plan, but at least that was incorporated into grants, scholarships & loans. (I don't know if that's possible when you live in a house?).

Not a huge deal where my campus is at, but security in general was better if you were in a locked dorm than if you were in a house. Might be a huge deal on some campuses.

Disadvantages to being in a dorm: Definately limited space and privacy for pledge activities, ritual, etc. And even parties & things. (I can't believe the number of people I saw crammed into some of the smaller "frat rooms" on occassion!) The other draw back for parties is that it was often easier to go off-campus if you were serving alchohol, which brings up driving issues, etc.

Having a place that is truly your own, where you can have all of your stuff displayed, have all of your members together, etc. is a nice idea. Although, as often as chapters lose houses (through risk management issues or financial issues) I don't know how realistic that is in this day and age.

One of my sisters whom I pledged with said the other day that she feels like the "frat room" is kind of like our "home base" as alumni. I imagine that's how people feel with their houses. It's just easier for them to go back to the house than for us to get into a secure dorm without a collegiate escort. So, while I often think it would have been great to have a house, dorm life wasn't too bad, either.

[Little E]

We actually have a nice mixture of the two options. We have a small (10 women) house that is owned by the college. We operate it as a special interest house. We recieve all the benefits of the dorms. It factors into tution/ fin aid, housekeeping, maintence, etc. It keeps our dues ususally below $150. We have storage space etc. If your college offers this it is a great way to have our space but also be within the college.

Some of the frats rent. They have issues with major maintence. You'll have to worry about those issues. where as we don't. i like what we have we can do ritual, hold meeting and such. also with a small number of spaces we don't have to worry about filling we have about 1/3 living in the house. having people live in the dorms is great! we have RA's and also people that meet new people on their floors. it is great for recuritment.

hope this helps!
Lil E

[greekalumna]

An advantage to having a system where the university provides housing for each sorority/fraternity within the dorms is that it "levels" the playing field so to speak. Since the high costs of providing a building comparable to the others already present on campus (particularly at big Greek schools), this system makes it easier for a new chapter to set up at a school. In addition, when Greeks live in general student housing, it gives a great opportunity for greek-independent relationships to be built.

A disadvantage is that such systems don't often offer the personality of the different chapter houses. I've always enjoyed visiting campuses and seeing the wonderful variety of Greek living available.

[dubyuhnellpiphi]

I agree that having university sponsor greek housing is a good plan. we have the most wonderful house, granted we pay through the nose for it, but the university built and keeps the house up. it does so for all the fraternities as well, with the exception of chi psi, who never sold their house to the university. the houses here are really nice, so that the guys pick guys that are more similar to them, rather than choosing based on who has the nicer house. if you want to check out our house, go to our website (piphi.wlu.edu) and click on the house link. it is AWESOME!

[MSKKG]

My chapter had a house--I can't imagine sorority life without one. It was a central meeting place, a home away from home. I guess it's all what you get used to, and you accept whatever the situation is. There are many unhoused chapters with strong sisterhood, so a house doesn't guarantee that.

We hired law students (guys, of course!) on the weekends to make sure the house was locked when they left. I don't know how much studying they got done, but we felt more secure!!!

The Kappa chapter at the University of South Carolina is in the process of building a house. USC set aside some property for Greek housing. As an advisor, I'm thrilled!!! I won't have to wander around campus trying to find a particular building anymore! Also, the money saved on renting rooms for recruitment, etc. will now be used on something permanent, and the hassle of carting name tags, props, etc. will be over.

I don't know how the financial assistance is handled either. However, I think the room and board amount is comparable to living in a dorm and buying a meal plan. That's something to consider since a lot of members pay for their education AND sorority membership. Hats off to those who do!!!

[CardinalSM]

On my campus (Mercer Univ) every fraternity and sorority has their own on campus house. Our Greek Village was built 2 years ago. All of the houses look the same on the outside with only slight variations. I think it is really great. Everyone is right next to each other, and it is only a short walking distance from house to house. I think it does a lot to foster intergreek relationships. We do a lot of stuff in the Greek Village as a Greek community. For example, the week before Halloween we had a Harvest Fest where every GLO had a table with some sort of craft or candy for community kids. And then last week during Chi Omega Week, there was a house decorating contest with Christmas lights. It was awesome to see the whole village all lit. ( it was also great to see the Chi O letters in lights in front of all the houses. . . but that's beside the point ) I think it does a lot for our relationships with other GLOs that we each have a house but they are all right next to each other on campus. You also don't have the problem with XYZ fraternity having a better house than 321 fraternity. It works really well.

[nauadpi]

Northern Arizona Universty created an interesting setup for greek life. There is a singular residents hall that houses all the sororities and all but one of the fraternties. We are generally seperated by wings, but do to size some chapters even share wings. Within a wing there are suite style rooms and a chpater room. It is a really nice hall, and when everyone sees it they always say it looks like a ski lodge. Overall, I think it helps greek unity on our campus a lot, but I do think sometimes we do miss some things by not having a house.

[meheron]

This is really interesting. Ball State is in the middle of redoing all the dorm. Of course the one with our suite is last on the list because they don't know how to incorportate the sororites back into the plans. Anyway they want to make each floor belong to one chapter and make the girls live there but I don't think this would work. The thought of having to move back to the dorms again would be a turnoff. I do love the idea of a Greek community where all the houses are the same. I actually thought of that a couple of years ago, about how neat it would be to have like a quad with houses all around it. No roads just paths around the houses with parking off to the side.

The thought of living in a house always sounds great and it sounds even better after we travel to other chapters who have houses but to be honest I would not have joined the chapter I did if we had houses. I love my sister but I could not live with a lot of them. My chapter is very diverse. We have women who are affraid to get their nails dirty and we have a group that play and win powder puff football every year. I think if the concept of houses was brought to our campus the stucture and the atmosphere of each chapter would completely change. I think you would look for girls who you could live with, not just be close friends with. Any imput??????

[honeychile]

Pitt is rather "all of the above"! There are university houses for most of the fraternities, but I think 2-3 of them opted not to move, so they still maintain houses.

The sororities were forced to move on campus in 1960 (?), but since KKG & KAT had just finished a duplex, they're the only off-campus sororities. Most of the other sororities are in Amos Hall, which is exclusively greek.

Amos Hall was the grandest building in a complex of 5 upscale apartment buildings built in the 1920's. There is usually one sorority to a floor, which is the equilavent of two apartments. So, we had 2 (small) kitchens, a chapter room, a tv/informal living room, and a very large formal living room, with rooms for 17 women off of the living areas (3 singles, the rest doubles). Even though the building is old, it's the nicest university housing I've ever seen where the actives live in the sorority suite!

honeychile

[CardinalSM]

Meheron: in our houses in our greek village, only about 10 people live in the house. Our chapter has 75 girls, but only 10 live in house. The rooms are private and suite style, it is beautiful. So we don't have a problem with people with different lifestyles, personalities, etc. living together, because you don't have to live in the house. It works really well

[Lady Blondie]

Our university had a dorm where all the sororities were located, and all the frats had houses. The university rules regarding alcohol (you could have it in your room if you were over 21 & had the door shut when drinking) did not apply as the dorm was considered chapter property (which I never really understood as Nationals does not fund anything for the dorm and was not the "owner" as a house may be.) You also had to have a female escort for a male student to go onto the hall, but other female dorms did not. The school was not allowed to place any student that was not Greek in the sorority dorm and the Greek women had to abide by their National rules.

However, the last few years brought about a change. The university needed more beds, and there were a ton of open spots in the sorority hall. (Not many girls over 21 wanted to live on the hall b/c you couldn't drink.) SO - non-Greek students were placed on the halls, many of whom did not want to be there. None of the rules re: alcohol/men applied to them, but it did to Greeks! In addition, each sorority has to sign a lease every semester that they will pay a certain fee for having their hall (something crazy like $10,000.) They also said no freshman could live in the sorority dorm. (Many girls would move in from apt. other dorms after the first month or so of school after signing a room transfer, but I guess the school didn't want to do extra work.) This makes it very hard to recruit women to live there who are older/drinking age. The cost of living on the hall very expensive. When they first implemented the new lease, many Greek women moved out because they could live in another dorm or apt. for less money (and they could drink and have guests as they pleased.) This resulted in having the officers and a handful of Greek women living on the hall, and the rest of the rooms were non-Greeks. Of course, this was not good for the Greek system. Most of the chapters were afraid to leave the dorm and buy a house because it could have affected them in recruitment (they have a house, and we don't OR they are the only ones not in the sorority dorm, etc.)

Needless to say, no one was brave enough to tell the school to take a hike, and everyone remained in the dorm. The chapters have now had to resort to amending their bylaws to ensure Greek women are living on the hall. One chapter I know requires all New Members to live on the hall for the year after they initiate. NM aren't always thrilled with the thought of being "made" to live on the hall. It appears the university is trying to tear down the on-campus Greek system even though there are numerous benefits of the sorority presence on campus. Frats haven't had to worry about any of this mess since they all have houses. However, the school did implement a "no socials at frat house" rule a few years back. (How this is done I don't know as the school does not own ANY of the homes - most frats rent from local owners and such.) This rule stinks b/c now the Greeks have to rent out rooms at local bars and pay high $$$ at these establishments for any alcohol. I guess there are struggles no matter where you live!

[SigK_Bama]

Our school had a Panhellenic Building where all of the sororities had suites. The fraternities all had houses. But anyway, the suites were large rooms where practically all chapter funtions were held. We could and did do Initiations, luncheons, all rush parties, meetings, and of course it was a general place to hang out. The suites were code protected on the doors so it wasn't like anyone could breeze in if they wanted to. We all had two closets, a kitchen area (itty bitty at that), and an office with another closet that everyone used for ritual stuff. KD had a suite with a fireplace, although it was non-functional. It was a nice, central location where we all could meet, but it was hell in the summer during rush when the AIR would GO OUT!! Every year like clockwork, we were always sweltering. The campus also had a dorm next to the Pan Bldg that was unofficially designated as the "sorority dorm" since it was closest to the Pan Bldg, and although we didn't have specific floors for the chapters all of the sorority girls who could got a room in that dorm. It was the place to be.

[Lady Blondie]

Since I went off on a tangent earlier, I forgot to explain how our dorm/suite was set up. There are six halls, one for each NPC org. Each organization can paint their crest or logos on the doors of their hall (with Res. Life approval first.) They have a main living room area where they have their own furniture, TV, etc. bought with chapter funds or donated. There are approximately 30-35 dorm rooms on one hall. Usually one room is for the RA (not necessarily a Greek) and also a room for storing ritual items, recruitment resources, organizational documents, etc. There is a bathroom on each hall with approx. 8 shower/potties/sinks. The bathrooms are decorated by each chapter as well. There is also a small sitting room and a small ironing room. The school used to have a large trash in the bathroom area they would take out on a daily basis and would vacuum the hall daily, but from what I hear, they stopped doing it. They claimed the Health Inspector would no longer allow for this. Anyhow, each bedroom can hold 2 women and has phone/computer abilities. Personally, I would like to see the sororities move off campus and acquire homes, whether they rent or own. The school is located in a small historic area and there are some beautiful homes that would serve nicely. What are some pros/cons of having your own house?

[FuzzieAlum]

Personally, I really like the idea of equitable housing, be it similar buildings or dorms.

If houses aren't equivalent (and I don't mean that one is colonial and another is cape cod, but substantial differences in size and quality), a lot of rushees are going to be looking at joining for the wrong reasons. And it's not really fair, since the collegiates themselves have so little control over the house. It just depends how old your chapter is (ie, how many alums you have putting $ in), and what property was available when you colonized, or (at my school) what the U had available when they deigned to finally grant you a home. It's not like judging a sorority on their rush themes, which the sisters themselves choose to reflect their personality.

I also think housing works best when sisters aren't required to live in - but there are rooms for those who want to. Those who want the bonds of a home together get it, and those who don't want to/can't move can still enjoy sorority life. And it eliminates the pressure to bid girls just to fill the house and make rent.