Institutions with national sororities

[SWTXBelle]

I've been surprised that KA has continued to put money into that house - cause it sure looks like a sitting duck, surrounded by the campus and all. I would think, given their strong alumni base, they could rebuild if they wanted to.

Hey - I'm going to be on campus next Friday! I'll have to look at it . . .


Does anyone here come from a campus WITHOUT housing?

And oldu - of those campuses which lost systems during the depression, in your opinion was the burden of housing costs a problem?

[oldu]

While many individual chapters lost their houses and were forced to close for financial reasons during the depression, no entire system closed because of it. In fact, I suspect the opposite is true. I'll double check my records (I'm in NYC & don't have the materials in the apartment) when I get home but my off-hand observation is that most of the Greek systems that closed were at non-housed campuses where it seems to me it is more difficult to retain a cohesive operation where there is no piece of real estate. My personal opinion is that owning your own house is a gigantic plus along as the group did not over reach and obtain something impossible to retain. Correct me, but I can not think of any really strong Greek system in which there is no housing (including lodges or meeting rooms) involved.

[PeppyGPhiB]

Originally Posted by oldu

Correct me, but I can not think of any really strong Greek system in which there is no housing (including lodges or meeting rooms) involved.

Um, I don't think Auburn has sorority houses, and it's one of the most competitive sorority systems in the country. But maybe they have a sorority dorm?

I was surprised to learn that Indiana State does not have sorority housing, either.

[ComradesTrue]

Originally Posted by oldu

Correct me, but I can not think of any really strong Greek system in which there is no housing (including lodges or meeting rooms) involved.

I will defer to DukeDG, but my understanding is that the sororities at Duke have nothing but a basement where everyone has to store their initiation stuff together (separate holding tanks, locked).

The men, of course, have houses. So, the entire system is not without housing, so maybe this would not apply.

[dukedg]

Originally Posted by Blondie93

I will defer to DukeDG, but my understanding is that the sororities at Duke have nothing but a basement where everyone has to store their initiation stuff together (separate holding tanks, locked).

The men, of course, have houses. So, the entire system is not without housing, so maybe this would not apply.

Absolutely correct. When I was there we had tiny tiny houses (Duke-owned) that we shared for storage purposes. There was a meeting room in ours and we used to have our officers meet there until my junior year when it turned out it wasn't safe to have that many people (8!) in the house at once!!!

Now they took those houses away completely and we just have storage. Out chapter meetings are in huge conference rooms in the student center and we conduct recruitment in different dorms' commons rooms and other meeting rooms (in this very odd and competitive allocation system!).

Fraternities have dorms, which are owned by Duke, and function as their houses where they live, have social events, conduct recruitment and so on. Occasionally, though, Duke decides to reshuffle all the fraternities (and selective living groups) so the fraternities suddenly end up in a totally different "house".

I consider Duke's Greek system to be very strong because of high participation, Greek members' involvement and leadership in other organizations on campus, etc., but perhaps others use different criteria for a strong Greek system?

[bejazd]

Originally Posted by oldu

Correct me, but I can not think of any really strong Greek system in which there is no housing (including lodges or meeting rooms) involved.

I guess it depends on your criteria for defining "really strong."

Several campuses that come to mind right away (NPC wise) are University of San Diego and UC- SAn Diego and Chapman University. All three of these campuses have had large pledge classes (30s to 40s to 50s) for years! and there was a time when people didn't think NPCs would attract members at UCSD...times change. Sell a product that fits the market and the customers appear!

Coming from a chapter that had housing, I was amazed at the sisterhood between the members of the non-housed chapters I worked with as an Int'l officer. The real estate, it turns out, isn't the big binder I always thought it was. IMO, the future growth for NPCs will probably be at campuses that do not have housing and are not likely to pursue it.

[TSteven]

I think in addition to houses, lodges, and meeting rooms, one could add *designated dorm rooms/floors*. I am not talking about schools like Auburn, Tennessee or Pittsburgh where each sorority chapter has a dorm floor that may or may not include bedrooms, a chapter room, kitchen etc. What I'm talking about are colleges where all (most) of the ABCs are assigned to one dorm floor (or half a floor) and the XYZs to another dorm floor. They might share common areas with non members. And non-members may even be roommates of some of the members. They may have to use classrooms for their meetings etc. The point is that the majority of the membership is in close proximity to other members - in their day-to-day living situation - which in turn helps to further the bonds of brotherhood/sisterhood.

[OleMissGlitter]

Even Southern Miss in Hattiesburg, MS has had a strong sorority system. They use to have floors in a dorm, but now they have houses that were just built for them. But their numbers have been pretty large considereing they didn't have a house until this past Fall 2007.

[Tom Earp]

Isn't it many times what ever the norm is on how GLOs will react?

If all have dorm floors and that is what they are used to, they will continue to grow or stay strong?

Now, I wonder at a school like William-Jewell in KC metro area is for the first time going with Soroiry housing how it may affect them?

If one or two have some form of housing, it could possibly hurt all in some form.

I come from a school where all housing as that keeps us all on an even keel. OSK has a rental house and TKE who is coming back of course do not ahve one until they recruit enough to build a new house.

[TSteven]

Originally Posted by Tom Earp

Isn't it many times what ever the norm is on how GLOs will react?

If all have dorm floors and that is what they are used to, they will continue to grow or stay strong?

Now, I wonder at a school like William-Jewell in KC metro area is for the first time going with Soroiry housing how it may affect them?

If one or two have some form of housing, it could possibly hurt all in some form.

I come from a school where all housing as that keeps us all on an even keel. OSK has a rental house and TKE who is coming back of course do not ahve one until they recruit enough to build a new house.

I agree. It seems like it is equality within each group (i.e. with their peers) that can matter more when it comes to an overall perception of strength.

Another popular view is that a council is only viewed as strong as it's weakest link (chapter).

[PeppyGPhiB]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

Does anyone here come from a campus WITHOUT housing?

Yep! Pepperdine has no greek housing, and probably never will.