Commuter Campuses

[Glitter650]

I actually think that commuter campuses are greatly helped by having a greek system, it's a great way to meet people on a campus where a lot of people don't live together. I know being in a soror has given me more of a "college" experience since I can't have some of the other things that go along with college life like eating nasty dining center food or leaving notes on your friends' white boards...

[MoonStar17]

I love my commuter school!

We don't have houses but the fraternities are getting houses this year...Fiji already has theirs with about 40 guys living there now...
FIU is moving away from the commuter image with a football team, 2 new dorm buildings, and 3 new campus buildings...things are looking really good...
as far as meetings and such everyone has meetings thursday nights in the student union building, if your greek your there on thursday night...
our campus is run by greeks and we get ALOT of campus support...its a great way to get involved on a campus like ours...
i live on campus and I love it!!! the dorms here are almost like condos... but they come at a price...
i live with one of my phi sisters (that means we rushed together) and so far its been great...a few of my sisters also live on campus but the majority live at home...

soon FIU will be in big competition with UM... since its in the same city...but im glad i came here being in a commuter school isnt as bad as i thought it would be

www.fiu.edu/~greeks

[hannahgirl]

The University of Akron is very much a LARGE commutter campus. Only 3% of our campus is Greek which when you truly think about it isn't alot (even though there are around 700 members in the Greek System). However....80% of the organizations on campus are led by Greeks.
All of our IFC and Panhellenic groups have houses...some are bigger, some are smaller. When it comes to women's recruitment, DG, ADPi, and Kappa are able to host Pref in their houses. Alpha Gam and Alpha Phi don't have large houses so they use rooms in the student center for their Pref parties. Our typical Formal Recruitment (usually in the Fall) is 4-5 days. Quota ranges from 10-15 and house total is 65. None of our groups at the moment are at total. DG hit total in Fall 01 due to our efforts (along with our nationals) to COB so much that we would increase our numbers. We hit quota during recruitment (which was 12) and the week later we took 20 women...taking us to 32 new members and making that the biggest pledge class in a long time. ADPi and Alpha Gam are very close to total along now with us considering we all lost many members to graduation and alumnae status. Alpha Phi is decent in numbers and Kappa has decreased enormously in the past couple years. They will be going towards the same thing that my chapter did last fall with their Nationals.
I can say...as a commuter student (soon to living in the DG house) it was nice to have a place to go to between classes, work, etc. I was very involved in high school and knew that this would be the one thing to keep myself involved. I have held a VP in my chapter and two Panhellenic Exec positions (PR last semester....President this semester). Its been a wonderful experience....and I wouldn't change any of my decisions...however, I would like to see more people like myself get involved on campus whether they live on campus or commute.
The men have it a little easier than the women. Their houses hold more members than the women (the most in our houses range from 4-16, the guys range from 10-30...i think) and there are also 11 fraternities compared to our 5 sororities.
In order to recruit more people, we have been trying to get out to more incoming freshman during orientation and by sending out fliers in the mail. Our PR chair (Panhel) has been working so hard in the past month, considering she just got the position in the middle of May since I moved up to Pres. So.....here's to crossing my fingers for a successful recruitment!!

[PM_Mama00]

Originally posted by Pi Kapp 142
I have news for you all........Just about any school of decent size is a commuter school!! UCLA, which has a great Greek system does nothave that many people living on campus or even near it. I do not like the commuter school excuse that people use to explain away why the Greek system is failing, or at least not growing, at their school. The way to get more invovlement at a school and growth among chapter is to work together. If groups backstab each other and can not trust each other enough to get things like Greek Week together, then everyone will see that and will not want to join. College is what you make of it and so is your chapter. Hopefully other SFSU Greeks will see this. PM me and we will talk.

I shoulda been more straight-forward with my post. I understand what you're saying about commuter campuses, but to me a commuter campus is absolute commuter. We do not have dorms, or student apartments nearby. Eastern Michigan U is considered partly commuter, and ALOT of students do commute there, but they have the option of living on/near campus, and they have houses.

At UMD, it is hard to rush, especially now. Our "hang out" building is closed for remodeling for 2 years. The new building does not want anyone to hang out in there. Instead they want people to hang out in the Rec on the other side of campus, where NO ONE is gona walk to! Only one org can have a booth set up for a bake sale, and one org can have a booth set up for whatever. When COB time comes around, it really sucks. Last winter we had a Phi class of 2, and the Phi Sigs had a pledge class of 1, while DphiE had a full pledge class because they got the booth first. Not sayin that they are bad or that's the only reason why people joined, but students are gona go with what they see first. We set up flyers, signs, talked to girls, whatever. No one reads the flyers.

What I just explained is exactly what I hate about goin to a commuter campus. It really sucks for us.

[Pi Kapp 142]

Wow, no on lives on campus huh? That is really a commuter campus. But I agree with what Hannahgirl said. It is a good way to meat people. I also think it weeds out the people who do not want to work as much for your org and school, because it was not handed to them already as a great system with lots of peole and support.

[Kevin]

My campus is mostly commuter. The school is attempting to move away from that image and build a strong campus life but it's an uphill battle.

Commuter campuses oftentimes are more supportive of their Greeks in my experience than your larger schools. We're some of the only people interested in giving back! That's why ALL of the Student Senate Officers that I know of and most of your student Government is Greek.

We're involved in just about anything that anyone cares about because we care! There's definitely a good side of the coin that doesn't get talked about much. At least at my school.

[PM_Mama00]

A lot of Greeks are trying to get on Student Government so that people can change their minds about us. There are already a few on it. One time, when it was voting for president time, one of the candidates and her vice president came in all the Greek chapter meetings to campaign, saying that they would try to make it known that Greek life is important, blah blah or whatever. What happened when she got voted president? Nothing. No support.

I think on normal campuses, students are more involved, no matter what organization, club, whatever they belong to.

[KarenC725]

Knowing your school, I feel your pain! Many of the students don't live nearby either so no one really wants to hang around. Two of my good friends were Phi Sigs there a while back and they had the same concerns you do.

[sigtau305]

my school, Cleveland State University, is a commuter school. nearly 90% commutes from various parts of the greater cleveland area. the greek system is pretty strong but needs a lot of work. the two greek houses that we have on campus is Tau Kappa Epsilon and Sigma Tau Gamma(my group). we have one Dormitory, But the school is trying to have another dorm build right now.

[ROWDYsister]

Originally posted by MoonStar17
I love my commuter school!
soon FIU will be in big competition with UM... since its in the same city...but im glad i came here being in a commuter school isnt as bad as i thought it would be

Good! Take UM down a peg or two! The Canes have run this city for long enough! What's your mascot?

And on the subject of commuter campuses, usually mostly freshmen live on campus and yes, it's a "once in a lifetime" type of experience, but the rest of your college years you never hang out in the dorms, anyway ( I lived in a suite on campus for 6 weeks in the summer before freshman year, and it was definitely enough!)

As for Greeks not having houses, I've read others' posts about how it doesn't matter at all if they don't have a house...how about those off-campus parties that take place in regular houses that are known as a particular fraternity's house? Those houses feel every bit as much like regular fraternity houses as the real thing. And I know many times brothers and sisters will live together in apartments and houses...when my chapter first recolonized they bought out a wing of one of the apartment complexes.

TV makes dorm life seem really cool...huge spacious rooms (like in Felicity) and your roomates and floormates who become lifelong friends. In reality you have a teeny weeny living space (this is my experience, not everyone's), psychotic roomates who drive you crazy, you have to carry your darn laundry three flights down, and you've gotta eat CAMPUS FOOD or live on Easy Mac and Ramen.

Don't get me wrong, I love the atmosphere of my campus and towards the end of last semester I could be found in any of my friends' dorms more than my own apartment, but don't feel bad because you can't have the "typical" college experience. TV and movies have idealized it.