2014/2015 Colonies/Expansions/Charters/Closures

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by flirt5721

Really hoping for AXiD to get more chapters in the west. Texas Tech and Northern AZ are both a few hours drive from where I'm at currently.

I'd love to see AXiD at NAU. I think they would be a great fit.

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by Just interested

Not for sure why they call them lodges but it's not new. I believe they call them lodges at Rhodes and at LA Tech to name a few.

Those at Texas Tech are very spacious with chapter offices, chapter room, living areas and large kitchens.

Yes, LA Tech has lodges, but they are more like you'd expect. They are small and wouldn't accommodate live-ins.

[sweetpea87]

Originally Posted by shirley1929

Ha! Totally what it reminds me of! I will say, they are beautiful in person...not at all what I expected, because of the word "lodge". I've been inside one, and it has a big kitchen, two big living areas (where rush parties are held) and an upstairs (that I did not go to) where the chapter room, etc... is.

My assumption is that the reasoning that they aren't able to live in them has something do do with TTU owning the land? But I thought maybe some of the fraternities had live-ins (I could be wrong about that? Maybe its just that they have parties, etc... at their lodges?)

When I started at Tech I heard the thing about "more than x number of girls living in the house would classify it as a brothel" but I think the truth of it is that it comes down to maybe zoning laws? Not sure.

Some of the houses are bigger than others, some are older, etc.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by sweetpea87

When I started at Tech I heard the thing about "more than x number of girls living in the house would classify it as a brothel" but I think the truth of it is that it comes down to maybe zoning laws? Not sure.

Some of the houses are bigger than others, some are older, etc.

Some places do indeed have zoning laws about non-related persons living together*, but such laws would not apply to sorority houses, where each woman has a separate lease.

*These are not "brothel" laws. They apply equally to men and women, and are/were mostly in place due to racism.

[Griffins&Quills]

I think the "brothel law" story is the story everywhere in the South. I've heard it pertaining to schools in North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Texas haha

[Griffins&Quills]

Do we have any idea about when we'll hear about UF?

[AOII Angel]

AOII colonizes this weekend at Duquesne and Setin Hall.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

AOII colonizes this weekend at Duquesne and Setin Hall.

At least something positive is happening in Pittsburgh this weekend. Grumble grumble stupid ravens grumble.

[LAblondeGPhi]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

Some places do indeed have zoning laws about non-related persons living together*, but such laws would not apply to sorority houses, where each woman has a separate lease.

*These are not "brothel" laws. They apply equally to men and women, and are/were mostly in place due to racism.

I would assume the zoning laws pertain to multi-family housing (apartments, condos, duplex units, etc.) vs. single-family housing. I can't speak for all municipalities, but I would image most, if not all, have pretty clear zoning restrictions in that regard, and it can take considerable financial and political muscle to get changes or exemptions. Homeowners typically don't want the traffic, noise and property value ramifications of multi-family units in their neighborhoods.

Multi-family vs. single-family zoning most definitely would apply to sorority houses, especially with the separate leases.

When I worked for the city of Los Angeles, zoning was one of the major issues I sometimes dealt with - and the zoning requirements were no joke. Developers spent hundreds of thousands of dollars (or millions, depending on the size of the project) in planning and consulting fees in order to get density bonuses or parking requirement revisions - and that had nothing to do with outright changes to zoning class entirely.

Originally Posted by Griffins&Quills

I think the "brothel law" story is the story everywhere in the South. I've heard it pertaining to schools in North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Texas haha

I think the "brothel law" myth is everywhere. I've heard it in California for years.

[dzandiloo]

Originally Posted by ColdInCanada11

Sidenote: my apologies for asking, but what exactly is a lodge in this context?? I google image searched it, but they look like houses?

I think the term "lodge" derives from the name used for other fraternal organization meeting places (Masonic Lodge, Moose Lodge, etc.).

All of the Fraternity Addition (a/k/a Greek Circle) in Lubbock is owned by the Texas Tech Interfraternity Housing Corporation, and the lots are leased to the fraternities/sororities for $100 a year. Lubbock does have an ordinance that prevents more than 2 un-related individuals from living in the same house – that’s meant to “protect the integrity of single-family neighborhoods.” Call it a "brothel law" if you want....however, that doesn’t apply to dorms or rooming houses that are properly zoned. I used to work at a title company in Lubbock and have read the Dedication Deeds & subsequent restrictive covenants for Greek Circle, etc. while doing title work for groups refinancing lodges in the past. I can remember nothing that would prevent a sorority or fraternity from building traditional houses based upon those documents. I believe Greek Circle is Zoned A-2 (high density apartment district) by the city of Lubbock, so my assumption is that when it was first dedicated in the late 60s, a decision was made to only construct meeting lodges instead of residential houses, and that’s just what has continued for new groups. (The original Restrictive Covenants say “The use of each lot shall be limited to social fraternities and sororities that are members of [NIC and NPC chartered orgs at TTU] for the purpose of construction of fraternity houses, sorority houses, or meeting facilities….” As more streets/plots have been added to the addition, they have included same or similar language.)

The reasons why Tech steered them to meeting lodges instead of houses (if that is indeed what happened) are unclear – rumor & speculation abound & it's not really worth repeating because it doesn't matter at this point. I have heard (but have not confirmed) that some of the lodges on the newer part of the Fraternity Addition do provide some housing. I think all of them at least have an apartment for a caretaker to live in (usually a grad student), though I don't know if they are all occupied. Anyway, I know the expense of a non-income generating building must have come into play for the organizations that did not submit a packet.

As an observer of Greek life in this town for the better part of 14 years, I would say that there may be some fraternity lodges that might suffice for the new sorority to use for a short period of time, but that’s tough since everyone has chapter on the same night. Regardless, not having a lodge at Tech in a reasonable period of time after coming on campus would be very detrimental to recruitment efforts & an operational challenge as well.

Obviously I want Delta Zeta to be selected in this extension, but I know Phi Mu & Alpha Xi Delta are also excellent organizations. I am really just happy to see Tech Greek life growing after so many years.

[shirley1929]

Originally Posted by dzandiloo

I think the term "lodge" derives from the name used for other fraternal organization meeting places (Masonic Lodge, Moose Lodge, etc.).

All of the Fraternity Addition (a/k/a Greek Circle) in Lubbock is owned by the Texas Tech Interfraternity Housing Corporation, and the lots are leased to the fraternities/sororities for $100 a year. Lubbock does have an ordinance that prevents more than 2 un-related individuals from living in the same house – that’s meant to “protect the integrity of single-family neighborhoods.” Call it a "brothel law" if you want....however, that doesn’t apply to dorms or rooming houses that are properly zoned. I used to work at a title company in Lubbock and have read the Dedication Deeds & subsequent restrictive covenants for Greek Circle, etc. while doing title work for groups refinancing lodges in the past. I can remember nothing that would prevent a sorority or fraternity from building traditional houses based upon those documents. I believe Greek Circle is Zoned A-2 (high density apartment district) by the city of Lubbock, so my assumption is that when it was first dedicated in the late 60s, a decision was made to only construct meeting lodges instead of residential houses, and that’s just what has continued for new groups. (The original Restrictive Covenants say “The use of each lot shall be limited to social fraternities and sororities that are members of [NIC and NPC chartered orgs at TTU] for the purpose of construction of fraternity houses, sorority houses, or meeting facilities….” As more streets/plots have been added to the addition, they have included same or similar language.)

The reasons why Tech steered them to meeting lodges instead of houses (if that is indeed what happened) are unclear – rumor & speculation abound & it's not really worth repeating because it doesn't matter at this point. I have heard (but have not confirmed) that some of the lodges on the newer part of the Fraternity Addition do provide some housing. I think all of them at least have an apartment for a caretaker to live in (usually a grad student), though I don't know if they are all occupied. Anyway, I know the expense of a non-income generating building must have come into play for the organizations that did not submit a packet.

As an observer of Greek life in this town for the better part of 14 years, I would say that there may be some fraternity lodges that might suffice for the new sorority to use for a short period of time, but that’s tough since everyone has chapter on the same night. Regardless, not having a lodge at Tech in a reasonable period of time after coming on campus would be very detrimental to recruitment efforts & an operational challenge as well.

Obviously I want Delta Zeta to be selected in this extension, but I know Phi Mu & Alpha Xi Delta are also excellent organizations. I am really just happy to see Tech Greek life growing after so many years.

Great explanation about TTU! Thank you! Good luck to your org in the expansion!

Do you think part of the reason they never went to full-on, live-in houses is because they are so freaking far away from the main part of campus? It's quite a hike (in a car) from what I remember.

[jenidallas]

Originally Posted by dzandiloo

As an observer of Greek life in this town for the better part of 14 years, I would say that there may be some fraternity lodges that might suffice for the new sorority to use for a short period of time, but that’s tough since everyone has chapter on the same night. Regardless, not having a lodge at Tech in a reasonable period of time after coming on campus would be very detrimental to recruitment efforts & an operational challenge as well.

I think it would work in the very short term - but the new chapter will need a permanent lodge plan in the works to be competitive. And chapter meetings will definitely be a challenge - everyone meets on the same night at the same time and fraternities/sororities do "walk arounds" for announcements at the start of each meeting period to announce philanthropies, hand out invites to date parties, and promote NPC/IFC events. A chapter that does not hold meetings on campus ends up missing out on a lot of that.

When I was a collegian at Tech, the lodges played a strong role in PNM impressions during recruitment and I can remember fielding many questions about ours. Décor and upkeep were a factor and the facilties of various chapters I saw sometimes looked like decorator showrooms. When I was there in the 90s, the chapters would have local florists come do arbor arrangements around the doorways even (a cost of hundreds of dollars) to add year-round appeal that would impress during recruitment.

We used ours for meetings (chapter, exec board, standards, committees, new member meetings), sisterhood and alumnae events, recruitment activities, study halls, and even just as a place to hang out and watch movies or TV. Other organizations would also use the lodges to host events (for example, I can recall going to All-Greek Bible Study at the Alpha Phi house). When the fraternities held social functions at their lodges, we'd even use ours as a pre-event meeting place to take photos and meet up with other sisters to walk over together - and I can remember many times stashing my purse there for the evening or coming back over to use the ladies room as we knew it would be clean.

The distance from campus was always a factor though - I didn't have a car for two years there so I always had to find sisters to get rides with. I felt like the distance played a role in difficulties with getting some new member engaged, particularly if they didn't have their own vehicle. When we were in school, many of the desirable apartment communities were also further away from campus than even Greek Circle was so there was never a central unifying location to bring us together and it became difficult to pull older members back in the mix when they'd move off campus.

Our house had a caretaker apartment set up - at one point, it was used for leadership consultant visits. I don't recall anyone living there otherwise when we were in school though. I do remember a couple of the fraternities having a small number of apartment suites in their house - at the time I was there it would have been ATO, Kappa Sig, and Pike on the original Greek Circle in the early 90s. I have heard that several of the fraternity build-outs on Greek Circle 2 also had a small number of suites included when they were constructed, but the ones I named above are the only ones I've personally seen.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by dzandiloo

Lubbock does have an ordinance that prevents more than 2 un-related individuals from living in the same house – that’s meant to “protect the integrity of single-family neighborhoods.” Call it a "brothel law" if you want....

Let's not whitewash it. These laws have racist and classist roots.

[dzandiloo]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

Let's not whitewash it. These laws have racist and classist roots.

Most definitely. And it has been a source of considerable controversy in this town because it is one of the most restrictive of it's kind still on the books. Google "purple polka-dot house Lubbock" and you'll see what I mean. Regardless of it's roots, I was clarifying that said ordinance, whatever you want to call it, does not apply to Greek housing in this town.

[Benzgirl]

Dear Everyone,
There is no such thing as the Brothel Law. Get over it!
That's all.

Benzgirl