No Sorority Houses

[StrawberryRed89]

I go to a school where none of the sororities have houses or live together. I was just wondering...have a lot of other people experienced joining sororities like this? Do you still feel like you were able to get close to the other members even though you didn't live together or have a central house to meet at?

Originally Posted by StrawberryRed89

I go to a school where none of the sororities have houses or live together. I was just wondering...have a lot of other people experienced joining sororities like this? Do you still feel like you were able to get close to the other members even though you didn't live together or have a central house to meet at?

You might want to change 'sororities' to 'chapters'.

On my campus, only one local fraternity has a house. It's practically impossible for anyone to have a house here because it's just too expensive to buy, keep, and maintain. Cost of living's too high.

We had meeting rooms at the student union (chapter meetings) and used the faculty lounge for recruitment and ritual, which works out perfectly. You don't need a house to meet.

I don't think I could have lived in a house. I was close to my sisters then, and still am years later. I liked the freedom of coming and going and doing as I pleased, and I would have never had that if I lived in a house.

[LPIDelta]

Ok...I'll probably get some feedback on this but I've often found that chapters that do not have housing are even more bonded than those that do. Part of it is that people are joining the sorority for the sisterhood experience it is purest sense, not just because of what the house looks like or where it is located. That's a very broad statement for sure, but I was actually surprised at how crucial it is at some schools that housing be "competitive" otherwise they lose members because this was a very foreign concept to me at my school of 2,000 with no official housing.

Living together certainly does help create a bond, but since a majority of sororities in this US are not housed chapters it would seem likely that a house is not needed.

[aephi alum]

When I was a freshman, only one out of five NPC sorority chapters at my school had a house. Most non-freshman members of that sorority lived in the house, and from what I've seen, they were close to each other but a bit isolated from the rest of the campus community.

My chapter did not have a house, so we had to make a special effort to get together to socialize as a group - but we did. We did everything from official sisterhood get-togethers to a few sisters getting together for coffee/dinner/dessert.

It is absolutely possible to become close with your sisters without having a physical building where some/all of the sisters sleep. It just takes some extra effort.

[DeeZeeOE07]

The sorority chapters on my campus don't have houses, but we have suites in the all-girls dorm on campus. No one lives in them, they just serve as a meeting place and we can go in there to hang out together if we ever want to. I personally think that it's better that we don't have houses - houses are SO expensive to keep up, dues would be ridiculous. And I know personally if I lived with that many other girls, I'd go crazy. I love my sisters, but we all know how girls are. I just live with one and sometimes things get out of control with emotions. I can't imagine what it would be like with 30 or more girls in a house! The fraternities on campus have houses but their dues aren't as bad as what I've seen at some bigger schools like U of A where I have friends in chapters. I know that my ex-boyfriend paid like, 250 or 300 a month for a single bedroom with a shared bathroom and that included his fraternity dues and all utilities, so it wouldn't be that bad. Sharing a room with someone would be even cheaper once split up. But I'm really glad we don't have sorority houses. As far as I know, only one sorority on my campus even has enough money to build a house because of an alumni who left all of her money to the chapter in her will. I'm sure maybe one day we'll get houses once greek life gets bigger here, but for now I like our suites and letting the guys deal with crazy house life!

[als463]

If anyone is planning on going to a university with a large greek system that has houses-Scratch Penn State of your list. I graduated from PSU and the fraternities had houses but, the sororities did not...It was alright because we each had suites (like a living room/ kitchen area for chapters to have meetings and generally hang out) but, that can even get competitive. Some chapters try to have the "nicer" suite or they cross their fingers and hope that ABC or XYZ gets kicked off campus for lower membership numbers just so they can bid on their suite. It's weird...but, it worked and I love my sisters....

[schnocks]

My campus does not have any form of housing for Greek life ... no houses, no suites, no nothing. And I honestly feel that I am just as close with my sisters as I would have been if we did have a house. I don't think it's been detrimental to my sorority experience at all. Maybe it takes a little more effort to get together in a big group, but that's no big deal.

[Dionysus]

The sorority I pledged didn't have a house at the time, everything still went cool. We just had to hide our ritual stuff (caskets, dead bunny, and rusty crown) in our president's parents' basement.

[PeppyGPhiB]

None of the GLOs at my alma mater have housing, for a variety of reasons. I imagine there are pluses and minuses of it. We had to do recruitment and chapter in classrooms, but we didn't have a house to maintain and, therefore, obsessions about numbers and keeping the house.

I never would have gotten any work done if I had lived with my sisters. It was bad enough being in the same dorm with a few of them...all we did was goof off. Plus, I think if we had houses that only had beds for half the chapter, it would actually divide the chapter, live-ins vs. live-outs.

[astroAPhi]

My chapter didn't have a house when I initially joined, and the other sorority on campus only had an apartment that they used as their chapter room. We were on a small campus (max chapter size was 40, and neither chapter reached that level until my senior year). However, I don't think we ever had a problem getting to know our sisters. We had regular meetings and mixers and that gave the girls enough opportunities to get to know everyone. Greek life on our campus was very tight-knit in general.

When we did get a house my junior year, it did lead to a lot of growth in the chapter. A third sorority (local) started around that time, and sorority life on campus went nuts.

However, owning a house was a lot of responsibility. It was a big financial responsibility, and it was only big enough for 6 girls. In a lot of ways, I'm not sure it was worth it. It was nice to have a place to store all of our ritual equipment and have a central meeting place, but it wasn't really big enough either. It was also difficult for girls without cars to get to it (it was an off campus house).

I'm hoping my alma mater goes through on their promises of a Greek Row, with townhouse-style homes for the fraternities and sororities. I think it would be a lot easier to have dorm-style living and have the university be responsible for the structures. The girls were mostly upset about having a non-member RA, but I think the university could probably assign a main resident director to all of greek life (and maybe it could be someone who is greek).

[KSUViolet06]

There are tons of schools without sorority housing. We had another chapter come up and visit with us for initiation. They were from a school where the sororities didn't have housing (Defiance College) but they all had a really good experience in Sigma and were still just as close with each other as we were.

[nittanyalum]

Originally Posted by Dionysus

We just had to hide our ritual stuff (caskets, dead bunny, and rusty crown) in our president's parents' basement.

LOL!

[icicle22]

Originally Posted by StrawberryRed89

I go to a school where none of the sororities have houses or live together. I was just wondering...have a lot of other people experienced joining sororities like this? Do you still feel like you were able to get close to the other members even though you didn't live together or have a central house to meet at?

Well, about five chapters at my college have houses right now...out of the 10 chapters that are already there.

[SWTXBelle]

But Dionysus - where do you keep the goat???

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

But Dionysus - where do you keep the goat???

You don't keep the goat...you get a fresh one each time.

Ritual Goat Slaughters aren't as effective on dead goats...and they tend to be smelly.