Sorority in crisis, please help!!

[FuzzieAlum]

I have to disagree that there aren't legitimate reasons to live out. "Legitimate" reasons are determined by chapter bylaws, and there is no one standard for what those should be. For example, most chapters on my campus allowed RAs to live out, waiving the out-of-house fee. The reasoning was with deferred rush, RAs were a great way of marketing your chapter. But I can totally see where another chapter might have a different rule.

I don't know what your chapter's policy has been in the past, but it is going to be difficult to change the rules now - assuming that the out-of-house sisters are in fact following current policy. (I'm not saying it shouldn't be done - just prepare for resistance.) For the future, it may be beneficial to revise your bylaws to allow flexibility. For example, "All active members are required to live in the house. If the number of active members exceeds the available space, the following groups of members will be given the choice to live out, in the following order ..."

For now, buying sisters out of leases sounds like the best option; the difficult part is deciding which sisters have to move in.

[ISUKappa]

Originally Posted by FuzzieAlum

I have to disagree that there aren't legitimate reasons to live out. "Legitimate" reasons are determined by chapter bylaws, and there is no one standard for what those should be. For example, most chapters on my campus allowed RAs to live out, waiving the out-of-house fee. The reasoning was with deferred rush, RAs were a great way of marketing your chapter. But I can totally see where another chapter might have a different rule.

If you're referring to me, a situation such as being an RA would be considered a "scholastic" excuse. Yes, they will vary from chapter to chapter, but the definitely need to be set out in the chapter bylaws and explained thoroughly to chapter members, otherwise, IME, women will try to take advantage of them.

That is also why requests for live out go through the House Corp or Advisory Board. If a situation falls in a somewhat grey area, they can ascertain whether it's "legitimate" or not.