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Originally Posted by EE-BO
Been following this with interest.
Frankly, I think UGA administration and the student newspaper are far more favorable to the Greek Community than some other institutions. And the Greek Community is widely respected there by non-Greeks, unlike at many schools.
I spent a few quarters at UGA a few years ago when stiffer zoning laws were passed that prevented groups of students from buying homes near campus to share. As I recall the rule stated no more than 3 unrelated persons could share a residence.
For those who have never been there, the Greek Houses and many student apartments occupy a long piece of land just a few blocks wide (and share that with subsidized government housing and business districts.)
The University is on one of the long sides of that area of land, and a very old high end neighborhood is on the other- a neighborhood that has always tolerated Greek and student housing, but has been adamant that it never expand beyond Milledge into the neighborhood.
So Greek Houses have few practical options when it comes to moving and wanting to be in a desireable location- even without what is going on right now.
Upsetting as this all is, I think it is going to be a problem at many schools- though it will take different forms.
West Campus- just West of the University of Texas- is pretty much all privately owned, but it is narrowly confined to about 8 by 10 city blocks.
U. Texas houses only a very small percentage of its students, and so over the years the number of apartment complexes and condos in West Campus has grown each time someone could buy up land and tear down either a small old complex or a Greek house and build a tall residential building.
Just to give you an idea- the one year I lived in West Campus during school and was not in my fraternity house or University Towers, my rent was $1,500 a month! This was 9 years ago and on par with the rent for a Manhattan apartment.
I was driving around West Campus just the other day and more and more apartments are going up.
The bad news here as well is that fraternities are routinely suspended or have their charters revoked for various reasons.
And once that house is gone, they are increasingly being converted into something else far more profitable. With the rise in property values, and the reassessment for property tax purposes every time a sale is made, it is becoming prohibitive for alumni groups to buy what few unoccupied houses remain and ever hope to recoup their investment or even break even. I found a small 10 bedroom house in West Campus for sale the other day on a tiny piece of land. Asking price? $1.1 million. The few big houses with ideal placement on large pieces of land are easily worth $10 million or more at this point.
But you need a good house to revive a fraternity.
So the number of Greek houses is shrinking and we are basically killing ourselves off by virtue of a culture of behavior and university perception that leaves us without allies.
My point is this- what is happening at UGA is far less bad than what is happening elsewhere since at UGA the Greek system has non-Greek allies advocating on their behalf. The solution will surely not be ideal, but at least there will be a solution.
And I would hope Greek Communities at places like U. Texas would look to systems like UGA's to realize how valuable it is when you can point to a strong record of philanthropy and continued chapter operations without serious incidents.
The story at UGA is a very good example of why the whole "old skool" vs. "new skool" argument is quickly becoming irrelevant. Alumni with lots of money is not enough anymore as economic pressures of expanding universities and the "not in my neighborhood" mentality of residents crowds us out.
At many campuses, it is now an issue of survival.
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While this may seem to be a long post by EE-BB, it is alot truer than many may think!
My College tried to do this at My Alma Mater to get us off of The Main Road which runs in front of campus.
All of the GLO Houses except 2 are on this street with High Profile and they wanted to get us off and in the Boon Docks.
Well, they could not do it as We owned our houses and the cry went out and the lash back was tremendous.
Now, in the case of Ks.Un, the Houses were bought (9) I beleive, and forced by the Un. and Appartments, cheap to say the least were put there!
In the case of William-Jewell on the metro area of KC, the School offered land with one exception, they want to have Houses that were above 1,000,000 $ in a Cul da Sac or there abouts.
It is leased for $1.00 for a long term lease.
In their case, it has worked out nicely.
MTSU-Tenn. has built great Houses, but they are becoming a hardship on the GLOS.
But, it alwys seems that We can be our own worst ememys.
We just built a new House, but if there are not enough beds filled or enough Members, they will go by the way side.
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