What’s it like to be in a Huge Chapter?

[33girl]

Tightening RFM and denying women membership just so the houses aren't overflowing is kind of silly. Lots of people don't want to/should not live in the house EVER, and never living in the house doesn't mean you can't live with sisters.

[DGTess]

This is foreign to me (my chapter totaled 15-20 at the time), but is it really an issue that seniors, and some juniors, simply refuse to live in houses -- to the point they'd resign rather than do so? I don't get the concept at all. We were so concentrated on our studies and internships/plant trips/interviews etc. that the idea of finding an apartment, keeping it clean, doing our own shopping for toilet paper and light bulbs and such, and general home responsibilities was something we literally couldn't be bothered with.

IIUC, my university-owned chapter house (we didn't have a house then) sleeps about 30 of the 100-member chapter, and every year there are more who want to live in than out, largely for the same reasons. MOST of the others live in dorms. Is this the oddball?

[irishpipes]

Originally Posted by DGTess

This is foreign to me (my chapter totaled 15-20 at the time), but is it really an issue that seniors, and some juniors, simply refuse to live in houses -- to the point they'd resign rather than do so? I don't get the concept at all. We were so concentrated on our studies and internships/plant trips/interviews etc. that the idea of finding an apartment, keeping it clean, doing our own shopping for toilet paper and light bulbs and such, and general home responsibilities was something we literally couldn't be bothered with.

IIUC, my university-owned chapter house (we didn't have a house then) sleeps about 30 of the 100-member chapter, and every year there are more who want to live in than out, largely for the same reasons. MOST of the others live in dorms. Is this the oddball?

It is difficult to get sophomores to live in, let alone juniors and seniors. To a large degree, this generation has never shared a room, or a bathroom, or a closet. They also want the freedom to have boys spend the night, to host parties, and serve/consume alcohol.

[KSUViolet06]

To clarify, while I think larger meeting spaces is critical, I think the current housing sizes (in terms of number of beds) work well for KSU sororities even with the exponential growth.

Two reasons:

*With the addition of the new colony, the NM class numbers will probably top off around 50 (assuming that number of PNMs tends to remain at about 400.)

*The average KSU sorority member follows the pattern of spending either freshman or sophomore year in the dorms, living in the house sophomore or junior year, then living in an apt AFTER you live in (as either a junior or senior depending on when you joined and what year you were in when you chose to live in.) The current sizes will pretty much allow for a good portion of the sophomore class to live in. It also ensures that you'll ALWAYS have it full, because you are not asking for an entire class of 60 to move in. More like half that. And really once you add in Exec, you have fewer beds than that!

[ruellesmith]

I can tell you that dealing with the issues of a 'super size' chapter can be difficult. Like many things, though, once you get used to it, it becomes 'how we've always done it' and just 'what we do.'

[clemsongirl]

Originally Posted by DGTess

This is foreign to me (my chapter totaled 15-20 at the time), but is it really an issue that seniors, and some juniors, simply refuse to live in houses -- to the point they'd resign rather than do so? I don't get the concept at all. We were so concentrated on our studies and internships/plant trips/interviews etc. that the idea of finding an apartment, keeping it clean, doing our own shopping for toilet paper and light bulbs and such, and general home responsibilities was something we literally couldn't be bothered with.

IIUC, my university-owned chapter house (we didn't have a house then) sleeps about 30 of the 100-member chapter, and every year there are more who want to live in than out, largely for the same reasons. MOST of the others live in dorms. Is this the oddball?

This is an issue I've seen at Clemson, and not just with Greek housing. Less than 50% of sophomores choose to stay on campus-they want housing without RAs, rules, and that is larger and nicer than what they would get if they lived in an on-campus dorm or apartment. There isn't room for juniors and seniors to live on campus and the campus culture makes it so that few want to.

The general trend is that sophomores in sororities live in the Greek dorm floors, which hold between 30-48 girls, but convincing upperclassmen to live in is nigh-impossible because very, very few juniors and seniors stay on campus. It's a little more relaxed for fraternities, but they are also smaller and thus a higher percentage of the membership has to live in their space to fill it.

[DGTess]

Originally Posted by clemsongirl

This is an issue I've seen at Clemson, and not just with Greek housing. Less than 50% of sophomores choose to stay on campus-they want housing without RAs, rules, and that is larger and nicer than what they would get if they lived in an on-campus dorm or apartment. There isn't room for juniors and seniors to live on campus and the campus culture makes it so that few want to.

This may be a significant part of it. We had no RAs, few rules, no curfew. The chapter has a house now, but we had one floor of the dormitory and none of my sisters lived off campus the whole time I was there. We had one housekeeper who did bathrooms and hallways.

Of course, it was the '70s -- the height of "I won't live by someone else's rules". But also, none of my sisters left early due to pregnancy, drugs, or grades.

[clemsongirl]

Originally Posted by DGTess

This may be a significant part of it. We had no RAs, few rules, no curfew. The chapter has a house now, but we had one floor of the dormitory and none of my sisters lived off campus the whole time I was there. We had one housekeeper who did bathrooms and hallways.

Of course, it was the '70s -- the height of "I won't live by someone else's rules". But also, none of my sisters left early due to pregnancy, drugs, or grades.

I will add that the Greek housing here does not have RAs, just house managers or property managers designated by the chapter to be liasons with the university housing. Apparently they used to, though-my old room on the ADPi floor had a sign that said RA that I had to cover up so girls didn't think that was my job!

It is probably also easier to convince girls to live on when you have an actual house and not a floor of a dorm as we do, because aside from the obvious perk of living with your pledge class there really is no incentive to stay in a run-of-the-mill dorm versus a nicer apartment. That is more of a campus-specific issue that will hopefully be solved down the road with the eventual building of a Greek Row.

[DubaiSis]

To the answer about getting girls to live in, yes, they will absolutely surrender their membership as opposed to being made to live in. We had a problem with that every year, but the chapter was small,the house was big and you gotta do what you gotta do. I would hate to think that this is EVER an issue with the huge chapters.

[Tom Earp]

I often wonder no matter what GLO, he or she is in that when does one just become a number and not a close knit Brother or Sister?

When we had a super old house, we had guys who paid the fees just to be members and not live there. Now we have a very new house set up to have two man rooms with a jack and jack bathroom. Yet we cannot get more guys to live in the house. Guess the reason why is they want privacy.

But the problem the cost for paying house bills is having people live in it! Cannot pay the bills ergo no house at all.
Then if they do not agree to live in the house at least one year, then they do not want to be true members.Hard choices right? Then you have to make them!! Numbers of members does not make a GLO, but the people who are members who care enough to do the very best for the GLO!

[NWguy]

For members not living in the house, are they still required to attend chapter meetings and participate in special events (Initiation ceremony, etc.)?

[Titchou]

Certainly! Those are chapter events - not live in events!

[33girl]

Originally Posted by NWguy

For members not living in the house, are they still required to attend chapter meetings and participate in special events (Initiation ceremony, etc.)?

This question is the crux of why it sets my teeth on edge when people talk about what "house" they belong to. If every Greek house -the physical plant - in the USA vanished tomorrow, the Greek system would still exist.

[Tom Earp]

Originally Posted by NWguy

For members not living in the house, are they still required to attend chapter meetings and participate in special events (Initiation ceremony, etc.)?

And that is the crux of the problem.

There are so many others going on that just be there meetings. How About late night jaw sessions, watching T V with pop corn?

[AnchorAlumna]

Originally Posted by NWguy

For members not living in the house, are they still required to attend chapter meetings and participate in special events (Initiation ceremony, etc.)?

Of course!

Originally Posted by Tom Earp

And that is the crux of the problem. There are so many others going on that just be there meetings. How About late night jaw sessions, watching T V with pop corn?

Members who don't live in are welcome any time. Some houses have extra beds, sometimes you can use the bed of someone who went home for the weekend, sometimes you can just roll out a sleeping bag on someone's floor, or in a common room.
If you come to eat a meal in the house (many require members to take meals, or at least some meals there), it's natural to hang out for studying, card playing, watching a movie etc.