Is it better to be [Greek] on or off campus?

[TSteven]

Is it better to be on or off campus?
By Sarah Cranley
Wildcat Weekly
posted September 09, 2004

A student who is not Greek at UK may think that all of the fraternity houses are in one central location on campus. However, this preconceived notion is proven to be incorrect.

The University of Kentucky does have fraternity houses located both on and off campus. There are many advantages and disadvantages dealing with the location of the Greek houses.

A clear comparison is the Sigma Chi house verses the Sigma Pi house. Both are strong fraternities at the University of Kentucky.

The Sigma Chi house is conveniently sandwiched between the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority house and the Delta Gamma sorority house on campus.

“Living on campus allows me to sleep in later because I have less than a five minute walk to class,” said Will Nash, an active member of Sigma Chi. The Sigma Chi house is also neighboring to the William T. Young Library, and not far from the Johnson Center.

“Pretty much everyone loves there freshmen year dorm experience. Living in a fraternity house on campus is basically the same concept, but your living with 40 of your closets friends, minus the RA. You are surrounded by sorority houses and you get your own parking pass,” said Chris Eseley, an active member of Sigma Chi.

The placement of the Sigma Chi house is also a positive factor in the recruitment process. The house is located in a prime location as far as distance from the dorms and in proximity with the other Greek houses. It makes there house easy to find for the potential new members because they are located on campus.

There are many advantages to living on campus; however, there are some disadvantages. Due to the fact that UK is a dry campus, there is absolutely no drinking on campus.

For an on campus fraternity house it can be annoying to the members who are of the legal drinking age.

“Living on campus does have some minor disadvantages. The University is a lot less lenient for on campus houses, however, Sigma Chi always finds a way to have fun,” said Aaron Metten, an active member of Sigma Chi.

Sigma Pi is an off campus fraternity house. “There are advantages to living off campus; first of all we have a lot more privacy. There are less fights and conflicts between the other fraternities because we are not constantly butting heads with the other fraternities that are all clumped together,” Said Nick Castlen, an active member of Sigma Pi.

By being located off campus Sigma Pi has more individual freedom dealing with house issues.

“I feel like one of the major advantages of living off campus is that we are able to add on things to improve the quality of our house without going through the University. It makes the process go quicker when you can do things on your own,” said Raymond Smith, an active member of Sigma Pi.

One disadvantage by being located off campus deals with Rush week. The active members have to transport the potential new members to their house off campus. The Sigma Pi house is not located within the main Greek area.

“Overall, I think there are more advantages to living off campus. Although if I had to name a couple disadvantages I would say being far away from the library, the Johnson Center, and not to mention far from all the sorority houses can be annoying,” said Dave Woolley, an active member of Sigma Pi.

Both Sigma Chi and Sigma Pi have various positive and negative outlooks about their houses being on campus or off campus.

On the quality of their other hand, the location of their fraternity houses does not effect the brotherhood.

This article was originally posted on September 09, 2004

[Tom Earp]

Wow, this article has a lot of ++++++ & ----------'s.

Geeze talk about open ended

I guess a lot boils down how visible one would want to be from campus and how nice and good you are.

Lime light or out of sight, out of mind.

Edited to add: By The School Adm.

[SplitzSTG]

My school is small enough that none of our six fraternities are on campus, and only one of five sororities has a house. My chapter is only a block closer than Phi Tau (we're the furthest two chapters), and both of our initiate classes last fall were bigger than the other 4 combined.

The biggest factor we have found is enthusiasm in the rush process. When guys see a 30 man chapter that is out there all week and pumped to be there, they want to listen. When they hear how passionately we talk about our chapter, they want to see more. When they see that we have the confidence to suggest they check out all the fraternities on campus to see where they think they will fit in the best, that's when they want to be a part of us.

If all these elements are present, there is no way to avoid guys developing a hunger for your fraternity. That's when you can choose the cream of the crop.

How else could a 21 man chapter initiate 13 new brothers in one semester?

Conventional wisdom tells us that success or failure depends on 3 things: Location, Location, Location. Well, you can have the greatest location in the world, but if you don't advertise, or your salesmen aren't committed to their product, your business will never grow, eventually fading into history.

Just a little food for thought.





"I drop pearls of wisdom. Picking them up is entirely up to you".

[exlurker]

Wow. The story would have benefitted from editing before publication. I have no problem with a minor typo or two, but this story needs help.

"Sigma Chi house verses the Sigma Pi" -- "versus"

"there freshmen year dorm experience" -- their" and "freshman"

"your closets friends" -- "closest"

"makes there house easy" -- "their"

"On the quality of their other hand, the location of their fraternity houses does not effect the brotherhood." -- "affect," not "effect," and "quality of their" should be moved immediately before "brotherhood."

A couple of unidiomatic usages could be revised:

"in proximity with" -- "in proximity to"

"Sigma Chi house is also neighboring to the William T. Young Library" -- probably " . . . is also near the William . . .," unless "neighboring to" is a well-known Kentucky regionalism.

Cliches don't make it any better, either:

"preconceived notion"

"positive factor"

Originally posted by TSteven
Is it better to be on or off campus?
By Sarah Cranley
Wildcat Weekly
posted September 09, 2004

A student who is not Greek at UK may think that all of the fraternity houses are in one central location on campus. However, this preconceived notion is proven to be incorrect.

The University of Kentucky does have fraternity houses located both on and off campus. There are many advantages and disadvantages dealing with the location of the Greek houses.

A clear comparison is the Sigma Chi house verses the Sigma Pi house. Both are strong fraternities at the University of Kentucky.

The Sigma Chi house is conveniently sandwiched between the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority house and the Delta Gamma sorority house on campus.

“Living on campus allows me to sleep in later because I have less than a five minute walk to class,” said Will Nash, an active member of Sigma Chi. The Sigma Chi house is also neighboring to the William T. Young Library, and not far from the Johnson Center.

“Pretty much everyone loves there freshmen year dorm experience. Living in a fraternity house on campus is basically the same concept, but your living with 40 of your closets friends, minus the RA. You are surrounded by sorority houses and you get your own parking pass,” said Chris Eseley, an active member of Sigma Chi.

The placement of the Sigma Chi house is also a positive factor in the recruitment process. The house is located in a prime location as far as distance from the dorms and in proximity with the other Greek houses. It makes there house easy to find for the potential new members because they are located on campus.

There are many advantages to living on campus; however, there are some disadvantages. Due to the fact that UK is a dry campus, there is absolutely no drinking on campus.

For an on campus fraternity house it can be annoying to the members who are of the legal drinking age.

“Living on campus does have some minor disadvantages. The University is a lot less lenient for on campus houses, however, Sigma Chi always finds a way to have fun,” said Aaron Metten, an active member of Sigma Chi.

Sigma Pi is an off campus fraternity house. “There are advantages to living off campus; first of all we have a lot more privacy. There are less fights and conflicts between the other fraternities because we are not constantly butting heads with the other fraternities that are all clumped together,” Said Nick Castlen, an active member of Sigma Pi.

By being located off campus Sigma Pi has more individual freedom dealing with house issues.

“I feel like one of the major advantages of living off campus is that we are able to add on things to improve the quality of our house without going through the University. It makes the process go quicker when you can do things on your own,” said Raymond Smith, an active member of Sigma Pi.

One disadvantage by being located off campus deals with Rush week. The active members have to transport the potential new members to their house off campus. The Sigma Pi house is not located within the main Greek area.

“Overall, I think there are more advantages to living off campus. Although if I had to name a couple disadvantages I would say being far away from the library, the Johnson Center, and not to mention far from all the sorority houses can be annoying,” said Dave Woolley, an active member of Sigma Pi.

Both Sigma Chi and Sigma Pi have various positive and negative outlooks about their houses being on campus or off campus.

On the quality of their other hand, the location of their fraternity houses does not effect the brotherhood.

This article was originally posted on September 09, 2004

[tunatartare]

Originally posted by exlurker
Wow. The story would have benefitted from editing before publication. I have no problem with a minor typo or two, but this story needs help.

"Sigma Chi house verses the Sigma Pi" -- "versus"

"there freshmen year dorm experience" -- their" and "freshman"

"your closets friends" -- "closest"

"makes there house easy" -- "their"

"On the quality of their other hand, the location of their fraternity houses does not effect the brotherhood." -- "affect," not "effect," and "quality of their" should be moved immediately before "brotherhood."

A couple of unidiomatic usages could be revised:

"in proximity with" -- "in proximity to"

"Sigma Chi house is also neighboring to the William T. Young Library" -- probably " . . . is also near the William . . .," unless "neighboring to" is a well-known Kentucky regionalism.

Cliches don't make it any better, either:

"preconceived notion"

"positive factor"

Glad to see I'm not the only one who picked up on that...

[Kevin]

Originally posted by KLPDaisy
Glad to see I'm not the only one who picked up on that...

So the UK journalism school ain't Ivy League quality, is that what you're saying?

[TigerLilly]

Originally posted by ktsnake
So the UK journalism school ain't Ivy League quality, is that what you're saying?

Actually that's not even the school-sponsored paper, just some side publication.

[TSteven]

Originally posted by TigerLilly
Actually that's not even the school-sponsored paper, just some side publication.

Frankly, I wasn't sure I should post it at first due to the writing. But I thought the content was interesting.

FYI: From the University of Kentucky web site.

The Kentucky Kernel is the independent student daily newspaper at the University of Kentucky.

Student publications at UK date back to 1892. The actual name "Kentucky Kernel" was introduced in 1915 after a contest was held to rename the newspaper. Two men split the $5 prize for suggesting "Kernel," which is based on a then-popular phrase, "a kernel of truth."

The Kentucky Kernel is the only student daily newspaper in Kentucky, and UK's students continue to win national awards for their newspaper and online publishing work as they enhance their educational experience at UK.

[UKDaisy]

Yea, Wildcat Weekly is not affliated with the University. Some of the writers are actually recent alums.

They brought this "new" paper in for more "fun stories" considering nothing in the Kernel is funny anymore.

Tigerlilly, are you back on campus now? I pm'd you!

[RUASTgrrl]

One question. When I think of On campus vs. Off campus I think of Nationhal GLO vs. Non-university recognized orgs. Is that what they're talking about

[Betarulz!]

Originally posted by RUASTgrrl
One question. When I think of On campus vs. Off campus I think of Nationhal GLO vs. Non-university recognized orgs. Is that what they're talking about

No, the difference here is location of chapter houses. It is readily apparent in the article that both chapters do not suffer from any sort of recognition problems. Youre new on GC, but you the first lesson you'll learn is that Greek Systems are VERY VERY different throughout the country. Keep that in mind when reading about the experiences of anyone else.

[Tom Earp]

Betarulz is right. But, Neb. U has a lot of not most of the houses close on Campus as campus is really small due to constraints of where the City, College, and Inter-State is.

A lot depends on land area, price, etc.

A lot of Colleges over the years have grown in land area and surround Greeks who have been there for a long time.

Price dictates whether they can afford to move "Off" Campus so to speak.

Being in the Lime light can be good or can it?

Nearness of the campus is great, except if you have a problem.

[TSteven]

Both Sigma Chi and Sigma Pi are international fraternities; thus this is a "if all things are equal" is it better to have 'off' campus or 'on' campus housing discussion.

With respect to The University of Kentucky, "on campus" means houses that are located on land owned by the University. My understanding is that houses may be leased by the GLO from the University or the GLO may own the house, yet the land is owned by the University. In any case, "on campus" houses are subject to University Housing Policies.

Note: There are a few houses that are not on campus, yet are located across the street from campus. For example, the Delta Gamma house is right across the street from the Sigma Chi house and on University property. Around the corner from the Delta Gamma house - i.e. next door - is the Pi Beta Phi house which is "off campus".

Slight hijack: My understanding is that all the Greek houses - on or off - are subject to University Housing Codes.

[Rudey]

I see more and more Greeks being housed in university - greek village type housing. So whether it's better or not seems to have been decided and Greeks evidently have accepted greater university involvement.

-Rudey

[Tom Earp]

I am sure by more and more Greeks being Housed in School sponsered Housing, you mean the handful of Schools who are building Greek Courts.

Some of these are building because of preasure from Greek Alums who Donate money to said schools and find out that Greeks Do Give a lot to the Campus.

It seems that some such as Mid Tn at Murfreesboro have built houses that most cannot really afford.

Those that have houses are not going to move into school sponsored housing and will fight it. Well, unless the Houses are in total disrepair.

I salute some of the schools that are doing this, but at what cost?