SC Greek Village

Lil' Hannah · #1 02-12-2003, 05:08 PM

So Carolina DG, this is mostly for you, but I was looking at the ZTA webpage at USC (I had to check out Samford's on shesadg's recommendation) and I saw their new house in the Greek Village. It's BEAUTIFUL! I was just wondering when DG's going to get their house, when Greek Village will be done, how they chose who gets houses when, and if all the houses will have the same basic design/layout or if each chapter can choose their own architect.

CarolinaDG · #2 02-13-2003, 07:00 PM

We're actually not quite sure. What the last poster said was right... Phase I was sold out, but we've heard rumors that a couple of the groups who had lots there might not be building after all, so it's just kind of a holding our breath and waiting and hoping kind of a deal. I've been in the KA and ATO houses, though, and they were GORGEOUS!!! I'm so excited for when we actually might get one! We're hoping that with the 10th sorority coming on campus next spring that they'll open something else up for us soon, though.

Edited to say: Sorry, I didn't answer most of your questions, did I? We don't all use the same architect, but plans have to be approved through several alley's. It's my understanding that ZTA's is about twice the size of what the rest of the houses will be. The lots are first come, first serve basis.

dgtxalum · #3 02-14-2003, 03:46 PM

Everyone will be able to build at some point though, correct? Otherwise I would imagine it puts the other groups at a complete disadvantage if they don't have a house or won't have one for the next few years.... BUT, if this is something where the new pledges could potentially be involved with the planning and creation of a new house, it could be a very exciting time as well!

AnchorAlumna · #4 02-18-2003, 01:52 AM

L'il Hannah, would you please post that link to see the USC ZTA house? Thank you.

AnchorAlumna · #5 02-18-2003, 12:26 PM

Oh my. That really is beautiful, isn't it? The interior pix would not come up, but the exterior is gorgeous.
From what I've been told (and you may want to confirm with our ZTA friends), ZTA finances houses. DG does not...at least not totally. Chapters must raise the bulk of the money locally, from alumnae and local bank loans.
Houses are wonderful, but they are a big, BIG expense. Payroll, taxes, kitchens that have to be up to code and inspected, full-time live-in house mothers (hard to find good ones these days), stuff that has to be fixed and pleas to redecorate...not to mention keeping the house full so that the bills can be paid. Chapters with suites are much easier.

MSKKG · #6 02-18-2003, 12:40 PM

Our House Board and some actives are interviewing one House Director candidate on Saturday. She sounds fabulous! She is also interviewing with another group. This lady is a GLO member, so she knows what being in a sorority is all about.

I agree, AnchorAlumna, about houses being a big expense, but USC was dead-set on them and not something like lodges. I think housing has become an issue, so they wanted as many Greeks out of the dorms as possible.

You are also correct when you say that they must stay full. The mortgage is hard to pay when no one is contributing to the fund! The Kappa house will hold 30, so we will keep one floor of the Panhellenic dorm as will most, if not all, of the groups.

Our builders were supposed to start framing our house yesterday, and we should be in it before recruitment in August. These are exciting times!

AnchorAlumna · #7 02-18-2003, 01:48 PM

I believe DG lent money many years ago, but has not in the past several decades. Council and-or Convention would make that decision, not EO (EO staffers take care of the day-today, Council & Convention makes the big decisions).
From what I've seen the trend nationwide and in Canada is to go to suites if housing has not been established...but it seems to be reversing now. Insurance is a HUGE expense.
Kappa, 30 is a goodly number for a house (our old house held 44 and was one of the smallest at another Southern school). With the numbers at USC, you should be able to fill it easily, plus the dorm floor.
Figuring how many to live in a house has to be carefully calculated to help pay for all those other living areas and overhead expenses. My daughter's a DZ...her house crams about 65 into tiny rooms on 2 floors, with 2 sleeping porches per floor. The rooms are smaller than dorm rooms...she is miserable and has no place to work on drawings and boards for her interior design major. Every room in the house is in use...They have to cram women into the chapter room there are so many so she can't leave stuff out there. They've even got a girl living in one of the TV rooms!
One odd thing...they redecorated a room as a beautiful library...but the only thing on the shelves is a TV and VCR/DVD unit. But you can't watch TV there because members use it for study! No wonder the girls flee to apartments.

AnchorAlumna · #8 02-18-2003, 01:50 PM

Oh yes...figure $1 to $2 million or even more for a house, depending on size, etc. I think our new Texas Tech house cost about $2.25 mil and houses around 60.

AnchorAlumna · #9 02-18-2003, 02:19 PM

Girls sleep in bunks in the sleeping porch, and the rooms have a daybed. Ours was wonderful - on the third floor, with nothing else on the floor except the chapter room and storage closets. It was quiet and dark (not black-dark, but darkened - there were windows) and you could go up there and sleep undisturbed any time of day. Daughter's are on the same floor as rooms, so you have to listen to music, yelling, showers, banging etc. although the room is somewhat soundproofed. She hates sleeping there and doesn't. But then she thought the dorm's shared bathroom was "icky." I raised her too soft!!

MSKKG · #10 02-18-2003, 03:46 PM

I don't know the exact figures, but it's staggering! PKTKKG is our House Board President. She could tell you the average cost of the houses.

dgtxalum · #11 02-18-2003, 08:13 PM

Yep - filling the house was always somewhat of an issue for us.... University of Texas has quite large houses - ours slept around 65 or 70 if I remember correctly. Most officers were required to live in the house, and so were sophomores. The problem was, a lot of sophomores were sick of the dorm-like living atmosphere and wanted to live in apartments rather than move into the house! Don't get me wrong, our house and the others at UT are beautiful. They're continually updated and remodeled, and much nicer than other campus's sorority houses that I've been in. But when you continually have to fill a house with around 70 girls, it can be tough. But, like AnchoraAlumna said, it becomes a financial burden if there is even one space empty in a house that costs a lot of money to run and maintain...

One thing I noticed with some of the other sororities at UT that didn't house as many girls as DG (more like 40-50 rather than 60-70), was that they only allowed officers or seniors to live in the house, so it became a "priviledge" to live there. This seemed to work better than forcing sophomores who didn't feel they had a choice in the matter. However, things could have drastically changed since I've graduated as campus quota has gone up in recent years......

CarolinaDG · #12 02-20-2003, 11:46 PM

Oh, my gosh... see what I get for not checking this thing!!!

The houses here are ranging anywhere from $1 million to I think $2.4... But I'm not absolutely sure about those numbers. That seems like a big difference. I know that all of them are at least $1 mill, though.

I was in the ZTA house earlier tonight, and I've been in KA's and ATO's, and I must say, I'm very jealous... but, there are a lot of downfalls that go along with it, too. Mainly the house meal plan, which is an extra $1,000 to $2,000 a year, even if you're not living in the house. And yeah, it would be no problem for us to fill the house. We already have 46 slots on our two halls to fill, so filling a house ranging from 20-40 people wouldn't be a big deal. Most sororities here that are getting a house are keeping a hall... ZTA currently has a hall as well.

And as far as the questions as to where we would be if we decided to build... I have no idea, honestly. I haven't heard any news about it, lately. I'm sure greek life has some huge ultimate plan, but I just don't know what it is.

CarolinaDG · #13 02-21-2003, 02:31 AM

Yes, you are required to get a meal plan, even if you don't live in the house.

Lil' Hannah · #14 02-21-2003, 11:25 AM

Here's another question - do the chapters own the house outright or does the university own them or what?

I know my chapter's house was on university owned land and do believe the house itself was owned by the university as well. this was good because we're getting renovations in 2005 (they're basically gutting the house and redoing the interior) and the university is paying for a lot of it, if not the whole thing. also, the university did our landscaping, cut our grass, etc. it was bad though because rent was soooooo expensive. The KD's and AOPi's on our campus owned their houses (not sure about the land) and had dues that were significantly lower than ours.

Having a house is a double edged sword, because while it's nice to have a "home base" for your chapter and also allows the women to get to know each other a lot better, it seems that it can cause a lot more unnecessary drama living with 40 of your sisters all the time, and it's also sooooooo much more expensive. our dues were almost $3000 a semester if you lived in house. Even if you don't live in house you pay parlor fees, a small portion of rent (you do use the house for meetings...) and a small portion of the meal plan. I have friends at smaller schools with no houses that paid $125 a semester!

CarolinaDG · #15 02-24-2003, 02:06 AM

The land is university-owned, the houses are not. We've had some extreme education budget cuts in South Carolina, so state schools have had to get tight on money.