well that's that

[Kevin]

Well you may find that not having a house could come to be a blessing. Your costs will be lowered DRAMATICALLY and you'll be left to concentrate on what matters -- brotherhood. It's not the end of the world. Many chapters operate without a house. It sounds like your chapter might actually come through this whole ordeal.

[KappaKittyCat]

I'd just like to add that a school has every right to be residential. They just have to inform prospective students of this beforehand so that they know what they're getting into. At a school as small as mine it makes sense to have a residential campus because if nobody lived here, then nobody'd be here. Here, everybody has to live on campus. Exceptions go to those who are more than four years out of high school, those who are living with family (includes parents/relatives, married, divorced, widowed, or have children), who are veterans of the armed forces, or who own a house. As my old English teacher used to say, "If you don't like it, then you can lump it, or you can leave."

[texas*princess]

Originally posted by ktsnake
Well you may find that not having a house could come to be a blessing. Your costs will be lowered DRAMATICALLY and you'll be left to concentrate on what matters -- brotherhood. It's not the end of the world. Many chapters operate without a house. It sounds like your chapter might actually come through this whole ordeal.

yep yep have to agree. at my old school, only one fraternity had a house. while they had a super brotherhood, all the other fraternities on campus and the sororities that existed has *no* house. Ever. (Keep in mind though the house of that fraternity was THEIR house, and not owned by the school or anyone else, nor was the land it was on owned by the school)

The brotherhoods and sisterhoods there operated great without houses just as the one fraternity who did have a house did.

And while this next parallel isn't entirely the same situation, many if not most professional GLO's don't have houses, or can't have houses, and many of them do great all the same !

[texas*princess]

And on another note, I really have to agree with KKC's post here. The Greeks had a HUGE privilage. I know if I was an underclassman who was not in a GLO and forced to live in residence halls, I'd be a lil irked by it. While I think it is not cool, it's just like someone earlier said, a few bad apples spoil the bunch. Privilages like that would make me think the Greeks would stick together to make sure their privilages aren't taken away by the acts of a few.

Just my .02 on that.

Originally posted by KappaKittyCat
Sigh...

Going to have to disagree here. The University has every right to set whatever housing rules it sees fit.

Underclassmen are required to live in the dorms, with four exceptions: they're married, they're in the army, they live with their parents, or they belong to a fraternity or sorority.

Sounds like UMass was cutting the Greeks a huge exception here. I'm surprised that nobody else pitched a fit about it a long time ago. At my school, if only the Greeks were allowed that exemption (as opposed to athletes or members of the Christian Fellowship or singers in the choir), the other organizations' members would have raised holy hell about discrimination.

Long and short: UMass gave the Greeks a privilege: allowing underclassmen to live in Greek housing rather than on campus. With that came a certain expectation of responsibility on the part of the Greeks to keep alcohol use to a reasonable level, and to at least do what they can to keep alcohol out of the hands of underage members while they're in the house. The Greeks did not live up to that expectation, so UMass is pulling the privilege. They're definitely within their rights to do that. I'd say the best you can do is talk to your Greek Advisor and see if a compromise can't be reached. Then, enact some strict policies about underage drinking in the houses and enforce them.

n.b. I was hesitating to post about the situation at my school, but now that someone else has brought it up, I guess I should. That'll be coming soon.