Sleeping porch vs. Bedroom

[Lil' Hannah]

I think most of the personal rooms have at least one bed in them in the event that a sister is sick (or wants to shack - the shame!). At least the one house that had a sleeping porch at my school did.

[flirt5721]

At my campus there are no sleeping porches, but when I went to UofA for a sorority house tour it found out what a sleeping porch is. Not all the houses at UofA have sleeping porches but many did. It seem kind of weird to have a bunch of girls sleeping in the same room. I would think it would be kind of hard if you have a sister that snores load or something. I prefer having my own room.

[Erik P Conard]

Sleeping porches were more economical, quiet hours enforced,
and they were for sleeping, nothing else. Girls were never ever allowed to be above the first floor, and the gettin' laid in the house is one, but only one, thing that destroys morale. We felt
one either oughta get a motel or use the back seat, and that the
use of the house for sex was tantamount to a whore house. But
times have changed and the pill has hastened deflowering.
Back in the 50s we only had one TV in the house; the study rooms
would often have a hi-fi but quiet hours went into effect at about
8 and were STRICTLY enforced, really stiff fines. Grades were very important and the flunk out rate amongst frosh was 30%.
Flunk out rates for transfers was high and we took few of them,
'cause there were many and they were not too adjustable to us.
To have a semester with less than a C was a horrendous thing,
and the top grades (Beta) would be about 2.8. No booze in house. The average house at KU in the 50s would accommodate 60 men. We had 88 live ins, but when the sleeping porch was done away with, we could house only 62. Times they were a changin' and kids had TVs, boom boxes and other things which took up room, and soon that house which once would handle 60
was cut down to 45, and great problems ensued due to making
a mortgage payment predicated on the higher numbers. By 1970
our house shrunk from 88 in and say, 25 out to 60 in and 40 out.
Huge apartments, condos, etc. were built and the richer kids lived
in them, paid big bucks--but they had 'em at the big U's.
Pledge duties and room inspections were the rule and the houses
were immaculate compared to today's hovels. Our theory was that mom and dad could inspect the place anytime and for those
'special' weekends, there was an intense effort to have a white
glove-inspection. The sight of a beer can would send an alum to
banana land, cleanliness and pride was the order of the day.
I forsee a lodge-type house in the future, housing about 20, due
to costs, land, risk fees, lifestyle changes, and the never-ending quest for privacy plus more discretional monies available.

[33girl]

Originally posted by Erik P Conard
I forsee a lodge-type house in the future, housing about 20, due to costs, land, risk fees, lifestyle changes, and the never-ending quest for privacy plus more discretional monies available.

Lots of places already have those.

[Erik P Conard]

Sleeping porches were more economical, quiet hours enforced,
and they were for sleeping, nothing else. Girls were never ever allowed to be above the first floor, and the gettin' laid in the house is one, but only one, thing that destroys morale. We felt
one either oughta get a motel or use the back seat, and that the
use of the house for sex was tantamount to a whore house. But
times have changed and the pill has hastened deflowering.
Back in the 50s we only had one TV in the house; the study rooms
would often have a hi-fi but quiet hours went into effect at about
8 and were STRICTLY enforced, really stiff fines. Grades were very important and the flunk out rate amongst frosh was 30%.
Flunk out rates for transfers was high and we took few of them,
'cause there were many and they were not too adjustable to us.
To have a semester with less than a C was a horrendous thing,
and the top grades (Beta) would be about 2.8. No booze in house. The average house at KU in the 50s would accommodate 60 men. We had 88 live ins, but when the sleeping porch was done away with, we could house only 62. Times they were a changin' and kids had TVs, boom boxes and other things which took up room, and soon that house which once would handle 60
was cut down to 45, and great problems ensued due to making
a mortgage payment predicated on the higher numbers. By 1970
our house shrunk from 88 in and say, 25 out to 60 in and 40 out.
Huge apartments, condos, etc. were built and the richer kids lived
in them, paid big bucks--but they had 'em at the big U's.
Pledge duties and room inspections were the rule and the houses
were immaculate compared to today's hovels. Our theory was that mom and dad could inspect the place anytime and for those
'special' weekends, there was an intense effort to have a white
glove-inspection. The sight of a beer can would send an alum to
banana land, cleanliness and pride was the order of the day.
I forsee a lodge-type house in the future, housing about 20, due
to costs, land, risk fees, lifestyle changes, and the never-ending quest for privacy plus more discretional monies available.

[VandalSquirrel]

when the Thetas built their new house a couple of years ago it was designed with sleeping porches, which I am guessing is to keep things equal with the other eight sorority chapters. Even the dorms at Idaho were orginally designed with the same concept of a sleeping area. A room with desks and a living space, and a small closet like area that had bunk beds and a window permanently open. One dorm had suites with two people to a living area, sharing a bathroom and a sleeping room with two other students. That was built in the 60s. I lived in a suite style that had beds and space for dressers and closets, and had an adjoining room with study area and lounge space that made living with another person much easier.

As far as shacking goes for the ladies, most people stay at their guy's place until they move out of the chapter house, which really varies depending on chapter size, amount of beds, holding an office, and other reasons. It isn't uncommon for women to keep a bed at their chapter house and spend every night at their boyfriend's apartment for years. Off campus living is cheap and abundant, and once people fulfill their housing obligations they move out of the house.

[seraphimsprite]

Every sorority house on my campus (U of Oregon) had sleeping porches, although the arrangement of them varied from chapter to chapter.

Most of the sororities had one large sleeping porch, that was basically for all of the sophomores (and sometimes some of the juniors as well.) And then they would share a bedroom with a more senior member who was the "room owner" and actually slept in the bedroom. The more junior member would just use the space to store her belongings and/or hang out during the day. (How equitable these arrangements were varied a great deal from chapter to chapter.)

One of the reasons I was actually drawn to my chapter was because it was one of the few sororities on campus where there were no room owners, everyone slept on a sleeping porch and the bedrooms were just where you spent your day/kept your stuff. I actually enjoyed it, but we also had a number of sleeping porches of different sizes so it wasn't fifty girls all sleeping in one giant room. We had a series that slept eight girls each and one larger one that held about 30, I think. The varying sizes also allowed us to designate different "types" of porches. We had one that was for light sleepers who needed absolute quiet, another for rowdier members/loud sleepers, etc...

There are both pros and cons to the sleeping porch arrangement and I think a lot of it can vary depending on how it is set up. But our sleeping porches were all on the third floor and had 24-hour quiet hours which was definitely nice. You don't have to worry about staying up until 4am and waking your roommates and you don't have a situation where a younger member feels like a guest in their own room and has to tiptoe around the older member.

[tld221]

does anyone have a pic of what a sleeping porch would look like? i'm having a hard time imagining what one would look like.

[Lil' Hannah]

Originally posted by tld221
does anyone have a pic of what a sleeping porch would look like? i'm having a hard time imagining what one would look like.

Imagine sort of like a summer camp cabin...it's just a big room with rows of bunk beds.

[ISUKappa]

Originally posted by VandalSquirrel
As far as shacking goes for the ladies, most people stay at their guy's place until they move out of the chapter house, which really varies depending on chapter size, amount of beds, holding an office, and other reasons. It isn't uncommon for women to keep a bed at their chapter house and spend every night at their boyfriend's apartment for years.

Yep. That's how it was at Iowa State as well. Senior year, my roommate slept in our room probably less than 10 times. And we had one woman who we saw only when she moved in and out of her room at the beginning and end of the semester.

[CutiePie2000]

Originally posted by AlphaFrog
Can you imagine what would happen if a sister got mono??

Or had Mexican food for dinner?

[honeychile]

I don't know of the percentage, but many of the houses at WVU has them, too. It's all good, unless someone snores.

[orchid2]

There was nothing like this at my school or any other campus in the region... I imagine there would be a tremendous lack of privacy, like in military training when everyone's bunks are lined up in a bay. I can see the pros and cons... Good for team-building and bonding, but somebody posted something about mandatory wake-ups (?); what happens if you had a late class and you wanted to sleep in???

[axidgl]

A sleeping porch at UW AXiD house:

[PiPhiGirl2005]

Two of the houses at Hillsdale have dormers, but not sleeping porches. Their dormers are on the third floors of their houses.

For whomever asked about what sleeping porches/dormers look like - when I toured the Chi-O house during recruitment, I remember thinking it looked like the room in the Madeline books, with twelve beds in two straight lines.

Personally, I'm not sure I would have enjoyed that arrangement. We had double rooms and community bathrooms in my sorority house, and I liked that pretty well.