Greeks in the city

[ZetaKris]

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[LexiKD]

One of my sisters(alumna) moved to NYC last year and joined the KD alumnae association and loves it. She did metion a Greek Day or something on campus and said she met any Greeks that were active and alum.

I have seen your "campus"; I always wondered how different that would be than a usualy southern/large campus with grass and such. But I guess when you are surronded by such a great city that campus needs doesn't need to be traditional.

I will be up there next month and cannot wait, I love the city and cannot take not visiting at least once a year!

[aephi alum]

At my school (MIT) there is definitely a campus, but it's so integrated into Cambridge that it's hard to tell where campus leaves off and the city begins. No walls or wrought iron fences, etc.

Fraternity and sorority houses are fairly scattered around Boston and Cambridge (even a couple in Brookline). There are 2 or 3 concentrations of houses and a few more isolated ones, but no "Greek Row". And not all GLOs had houses (mine didn't).

It's a trade-off - we don't have all the wide open spaces that a more rural campus would have, but we have all the cultural activities, restaurants, museums, etc. of Boston. I liked it - guess I'm a city girl at heart

[KSigkid]

I'm with aephi alum on this one.

I go to school at Boston University, so we're right in the middle of Boston. As she said, the houses are scattered out throughout outlying areas - ours is in Brookline, most of the others are in Allston and Brighton.

Being a fraternity in the city is definitely a challenge. First off, when people get to school, they have Boston all around them, so the need to join a fraternity/sorority is not quite as strong. In addition, there's not really a campus at my school, so there's no Greek row or any of that. Makes it tougher for the Greek system to be really united.

However: it makes it even more satisfying when you are able to do such right, such as have a good rush and keep strong membership numbers. You work with what you have, and although the situation is less than ideal, we've tried our best to work well with it.

Collin

[lifesaver]

San Antonio is the 9th largest city in the US. We have about 1.5 million peeps in the MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area). Our campus isnt in the heart of town, but out on the edge of town.

Coolness:
Tons of stuff to do. Always a draw at events. Lots of Alums in the area. Great resturaunts. Tons of places to have events. Can hang with the other chapter here in town.

Cons:
We have to drive a long way to do anything, grocery store. No sense of community.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Well, the largest Greek system in the world sits right in the middle of a whole lot of corn. I would say the biggest problem we have is alumni support. The majority of students here are from Chicago or St. Louis. While alums are three hours away and will come down for big events, it is hard to find local advisors and to really keep a strong connection.

Compared to other college towns I've seen, though, we have a pretty good set-up. Almost every Greek house is within a few blocks of the quad and the heart of campus. Bars are easily in walking distance, so we don't have to worry about designated drivers or anything.

[TrojanGirl]

I attend the University of Arkansas Little Rock, Arkansas's only urban university. The greek system here is strange compared to other universities I visited. There is a "greek row" only in the sense that all of the greek houses are on the same street, but not really together. No one lives in the houses (so I guess that technically makes them cottages?) but since this is an almost entirely commuter campus (one dorm with 350 students is all there is on campus) we all spend lots of time together during the day.
I like the setup here. No worry about living in the house, we get to park closer than most (parking here can be as far as a mile from the main part of campus) and being in LR gives us a chance to get out and get involved with a large community.

Trojan Girl

[Siobhan]

UBC is located right in Vancouver which has a population of about 2 million - the campus itself is like a small city. We do have a greek row (well a fraternity row). Because we are situated in a big city we all have quite a large alumnae base and there is tonnes of stuff to do both on and off campus. UBC has one of the city's major bus loops so you can go just about anywhere and it's very close to downtown. It's also good being greek and situated in a large city because you can do a tonne of things with your sisters: skiing, going to the beach, kayaking, dancing, shopping, movies, going to the theatre, hockey games, baseball games, football games.......

[damasa]

Originally posted by KSigkid
I'm with aephi alum on this one.

I go to school at Boston University, so we're right in the middle of Boston. As she said, the houses are scattered out throughout outlying areas - ours is in Brookline, most of the others are in Allston and Brighton.

Being a fraternity in the city is definitely a challenge. First off, when people get to school, they have Boston all around them, so the need to join a fraternity/sorority is not quite as strong. In addition, there's not really a campus at my school, so there's no Greek row or any of that. Makes it tougher for the Greek system to be really united.

However: it makes it even more satisfying when you are able to do such right, such as have a good rush and keep strong membership numbers. You work with what you have, and although the situation is less than ideal, we've tried our best to work well with it.

Collin

Same here, it's a lot of fun going to school in the city, although we do have somewhat of a campus, and it keeps expanding. On the other hand, like collin said, most of our greek org houses are scattered in the outlying neighborhoods because we don't have a "greek row/frat row." That is supposedly changing soon, but because we are in the city, greek life is also smaller because there are so many other things going on. And because there is so much going on, there is always something to do.

blaine