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Old 01-28-2002, 02:26 PM
FuzzieAlum FuzzieAlum is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Nashville
Posts: 1,762
Here's my 2 cents -
JUST SAY NO TO UNIVERSITY-FUNDED GREEK HOUSING!

Back in the mid-20th century, my school had the great idea that all fraternities had to move out of the houses they owned into big ugly dorm-style houses that the school built and owned. Fraternities were required to sell their houses to pay for this. The plan was abandoned halfway through, so some groups were in house-style houses and some were in dorm-style ones. There are still rumors to this day of chapters getting fleeced by the school for the money. And of course you can guess which houses are more attractive - which esp. matters to sororities and their rushees. (Every time a sorority moved out of a dorm or dorm-style house into a "real" house their numbers magically went up.)

The university still owns almost every fraternity and sorority house on our campus. And they dispense them at their whim. One of the sororities has a terrible lease that basically requires EVERY spot in the house to be filled, so one year I was there they required girls who were out of house for a valid reason (RAs, for example) to pay board anyway. The few unhoused chapters, no matter how they got that way, are at a disadvantage and have to curry favor with the Greek life folks for the few spots that open up. Not to mention that some of the unhoused groups are larger than the housed ones, so we can't figure out what it takes to get a house. Sigma Chi's numbers dropped precipitously a few years back, and their corp board ended up selling their house (which they actually owned) to the U. Rather than putting another GLO there, on frat row, they turned it into a print shop! Other suitable houses that have purchased have not been used for Greek groups.

Once you let the U control your house, you're out of luck and not even a good corp board can protect you. You may be protected from some financial risk, but I still advice your corp board to get the house on it's own, so you don't owe the university anything!
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