Live-in requirements?

[KSUViolet06]

I have been curious about this ever since I met a girl who is in a sorority at a school where they have residential houses, but don't REQUIRE girls to live there.

Does/did your chapter require you to live in the chapter house (or dorm floor/suite/whatever)? How long?

I know personally my chapter has a two semester live-in requirement. The only exceptions are medical (i.e. we have a girl in the chapter who goes to dialysis 3x a week and living in is too far away), you OWN a house, or being an RA.

All officers (7) must live in for their entire term.

Capacity is like 20, and if you subtract the 7 officers, that only leaves 13 spots to fill.

We always have alot of girls wanting to move in in the fall after they're initiated, so it hasn't really been something that is like "pulling teeth" (though there is a system in place for determining who needs to move in, if it should ever come to that at any point).

[bluefish81]

My undergraduate chapter had live-in requirements. I believe it was four semesters, unless the chapter wasn't at capacity. If the chapter wasn't at house capacity (60), you were required to start living-in the following school year, i.e. if you joined when you were a freshman, fall of your sophomore year and so on. Some people, such as myself, moved in sooner, I joined the fall of my freshman year and moved at semester. The chapter was never at capacity when I was a member so everyone always lived-in. The chapter also had a ranking order for if there were only like two or three slots available to move out how that would be determined as well.

[ThetaPrincess24]

My chapter (atleast at the time I was active) had a requirement to stay on the designated dorm floor for 5 semesters.

[AlexMack]

When I joined the only requirement was that the house be full. After this started becoming a problem, we instituted a livein requirement.
I didn't live in-house.

[AchtungBaby80]

We were supposed to live in for four semesters, I believe? Something like that. Most people really wanted to live in the house, though, so it usually wasn't a problem trying to fill it. That was also good for the girls who just didn't want to live in, because they could get out of the two-year requirement if the house was already full.

[Tom Earp]

We require our President to live in house. It is also required for members to live in house for 1 year. But if the house is full, there is no need. Usually the need is to keep the house full and per bed costs to be comparable to all other housing.

It is after all the focal point of any Greek Organization.

[aephi alum]

When I was an undergrad, only two sororities had houses, and mine wasn't one of them.

The first sorority had quite a large house, so pretty much every non-freshman had to live there in order to keep it at capacity.

The second sorority got a smaller house. They had an interesting way of doing housing. Certain officers had to live in-house. They filled the other spots by offering them to the sisters - first the seniors, then the juniors, then the sophomores (freshmen weren't eligible to live in-house). They had a rule that if any spot in the house went unfilled, then all sisters who were eligible to live in-house but chose not to, had to split the cost of that empty spot. (AFAIK, they've never had to invoke this rule.) So no one, except for the President and a couple of other officers, was ever forced to live in-house.

My chapter now has a house, but I don't know what live-in requirements they've adopted.

[twinkle555]

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

I have been curious about this ever since I met a girl who is in a sorority at a school where they have residential houses, but don't REQUIRE girls to live there.

Does/did your chapter require you to live in the chapter house (or dorm floor/suite/whatever)? How long?

I know personally my chapter has a two semester live-in requirement. The chapter house had to be full, and most of the time that's not a problem because we have an adequate number of girls asking to move in.

we require girls to live in the house for a year. but i think if you have financial reasons or you own ur own house and show proof, you can be exempt.

[flirt5721]

My chapter requires at least 2 semester but longer if the house is not filled.

[ufdale]

My sorority has a house (as do all of UF's sororities). I'm not sure what capacity is (maybe 40 or so?) but we're NOT required to live in the house. Most girls live in the house as sophomores though and a lot want to live in the house, so the house is full. I have a house here in Gainesville (and a dog), so it wouldn't be possible for me to live in the house. Although I think having a house and dinners brings chapters together, I'm really happy we aren't required to live in.

[irishpipes]

I think my chapter's only requirement was that the house be full. The Leadership Council officers had to live in the house. Our house had a capacity of 66, and the chapter had about 180 members. We also have an incredible location right on the quad, and the dorms and apartments were a pretty far walk, so we never had a problem filling the house. Many girls never lived in.

[Drolefille]

My sister's TriDelta house requires two years of live in unless you're from this city. In that case you can live at home or in the house.

I'm not sure if the two years rule is set or if it's just that seniors can live out of the house.

[lbk_kpd]

Our only requirements for housing are that our president, vice president, and new member educator must live in the house, and the house must be full. Since we're in NYC, all Greek housing is owned by the university and consists of high-rise penthouses and suites; if we don't fill our house, campus housing can either revoke our placement in that house and downgrade us to a smaller one, or fill the empty place with a non-Greek from the housing list....crazy, but they've definitely done it before. We usually don't have too big of a problem filling our housing, but we have several sisters who commute to campus and so they are ineligiable for any kind of university housing, including Greek housing, so sometimes it gets a little tight. Basically, the way we determine who will live in is by seniority; the oldest (by scroll order) active sister eligiable to live in decides if she would like to, then the next oldest, etc...if there is an issue, it's usually on the youngest sisters to live in to make up the required number.

[ISUKappa]

At my undergrad chapter, you were required to live in unless the house was at capacity. The house held 65; total at campus at that time was 92 so all sophomores and juniors lived in with most of the seniors living in as well. Freshman could move in right away if there was space -- I moved in second semester of my freshman year and lived in until I graduated.

At the chapter I advise, members must live in two years unless the house is at capacity. Sometimes there are extinuating circumstances, but those are rare and must have a written letter from a Doctor or other specialist stating the circumstances. House capacity is 52-54 (depending on whether the President wants to live in her suite in the basement) and chapter total is 110 on campus. Almost all freshman and seniors live out. If there is availability for more women to live out, there is a points system that determines who would be extended that opportunity first. All chapter officers except two must live in.

[WVU alpha phi]

Exec board is required to live in the house during their term and I think there may be 2 or 3 positions that aren't on Exec, but are still required to live in. Our house can hold 26 girls, so this leaves open about 18 or 19 spaces. We instituted a year live in requirement starting with this year's pledge class, so I believe next year's hose will be full of mostly younger girls within the sorority. However, older girls will get priority to live there above a younger girl if they want to live in the house (the house is almost always all sophomores and juniors with maybe one or two seniors).