Sororities Not Using their House for Events

[chi-o_cat]

It’s been 20 years since I was In college, and I recently volunteered as a chapter advisor. I know that a lot of things have changed over the years, especially in the areas of recruitment, risk management, new member process, etc. The chapter where I’m an advisor is not at the school I attended. Formal recruitment was this fall, and out of the 4 rounds, only one round (house tours) took place at the sorority house. The rest of the rounds, for all 5 sororities, took place in the student union and other campus buildings. This chapter (I don’t know about the others on campus) also has chapter meetings, new member meetings, exec board, etc in academic buildings. They don’t have initiation at the house, either. They have used churches and other “borrowed space” for this in the past.

Is this a nationwide trend, to not use the sorority house for chapter functions, or is this something particular to this university? Back in the “olden days” we had everything at the house- meetings, initiation, recruitment, etc. Pretty much the only thing I remember not taking place in the house were formals and semi-formals. There was one sorority that didn’t have a house, and they used a fraternity house for their recruitment location. At the university where I am an advisor, sorority houses are a relatively new concept. They are school-owned houses which opened in 2007 (previously sororities had assigned floors in the dorms), but still, it’s been 5 years, so that means at this point even the oldest member joined when there was a house. I’m wondering if maybe some of these are just carried-over habits from the days where there was no house, in other words, doing things they way they’ve always been done, just because nobody has thought to do it any differently. Or are schools (or national offices) in general, encouraging sororities to conduct more of the “business” of the organization away from the house?