Living Arrangements

School is starting in less than 2 weeks for me and I decided that I am going to go through fall formal recruitment for sure so I decided to do some research on the sororities at my school. I found out that we have seven sororities, but only one house. I think this is because most of the people commute to school(probably like 95% of the people.) Anyway, when I was younger and thought about being in a sorority I always looked forward to living in the house...what could be better than living with all of your best friends. I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea and think that I am joining just to live in the house because I know there is so much more to a sorority than that(the house is merely a bonus.) Well, I was just wondering if any other schools you know of are like this? I was just curious where the sisters stayed(like if they would just live at home, or they would have their own apartment.) I don't think they have their own sections in the dorms because hardly anyone lives in there. And, I was wondering where they would have their meetings, or where they would eat lunch at, or where they would could find a place big enough where they can just chill out together. I know it's a lot of questions, but I was just wondering how it would work. I would really really appreciate it if anyone had any idea on how this would work. Thanks a bunch:-)

[twinstars]

my sorority will have a chapter house for the first time this coming school year. since we had no house in the past, we didn't eat lunches together. rush was held in the student union, each sorority getting a room in which to hold its rush parties. chapter meetings can be held in small auditoriums, empty large classrooms, etc., generally just available spaces around campus.

with the house this year, every member will eat lunch weekdays in the chapter house. we will also hold our weekly meeting there, which will be great. plus, for the first time the rush parties will be in the houses. however, only 20 sisters (out of more than 100) will get to live in the house, due to space considerations. most everyone else still lives in the dorms, or off campus in private houses and apartments.

[This message has been edited by twinstars (edited August 18, 2000).]

[33girl]

Our dorms used to have suites for the sororities, with the study rooms on each wing serving as chapter suites where memorabilia could be displayed. This was discontinued when dorm space became scarce. But quite a few schools still do this.

Sisters who live off campus often do live together – cause naturally you’d want to live with your closest friends! We often had sisters living in the larger apartments which every school has nearby (the ones called “University Arms”, or some such thing) and those make good unofficial gathering places to just hang out if you don’t have a suite or house.

Rush functions and chapter meetings can be held in classrooms or the student union.

Oh – and don’t assume that the women in the housed sorority do everything there. The biggest sorority on our campus had a huge house. But only the most senior members had kitchen privileges (this was not the type of house that has a cook) and the rest of them had to eat in the dining hall – they had specified dining shifts, actually.

[Dewgirl]

Ditto for us - No house or anything like that, but many of us live together in twos and threes in off campus apartments. We hold rush events, meetings, all that jazz in classrooms, and usually someone lives in a big enough (private) house that we can hold parties there, but we just can't call it our house. I know what you mean though, Nat, i always wanted to live in a big sorority house too...some of the other chapters on our campus have SUCH pretty ones!!

[SilverTurtle]

I think most everything has been covered. Housing will be different for every campus. Way back in the late '60's or early 70's, my campus did away with Greek houses. Instead, they moved them all into a dorm, and each GLO was given a hall to live on. (I guess communal living was really big at the time).

All of the fraternities and 1 sorority are in one dorm. The other 2 sororities and my GLO are in another.

You don't have to belong to any GLOs to live on these halls (I lived on another sororities hall the year I pledged!), but the GLOs get first dibs on all of the rooms (and have to fill X number of rooms to keep the hall).

Also, each GLO has a chapter room (or "frat room") in the basement of the dorm on which their hall is located. (There is one GLO, APO, which doesn't have a hall, but does have a frat room.. in fact their's is the largest! ).

The rooms were used for rush and pledging/new member events, parties (sometimes.. some of them are tiny), chapter meetings, etc. The school was also very good about letting GLOs hold events, especially for Rush, in other places (like the Student Union).

Also, many brothers or sisters would live together in apartments as previous people mentioned.

I would have loved a house, too! But one of the advantages of having the halls was that we got to meet a lot of new residents (and potential members!) Our hall was "self-governing" (basically this meant men could be on the hall 24 hours.. it was a women's hall.. much to the disappointment of our male members!) So we got a lot of transfer students in the arts (I think the administration intentionally put some of those girls there!) and occassionally freshman or member's roommates. (My roommate never joined , although she almost did. But often a member would have a roommate who ended up joining before the year was over).

Ok- that was way more than I meant to post!

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SilverTurtle@greekchat.com
Phi Beta Fraternity
Phi chapter