Quote:
Originally Posted by thetalady
Most people, especially our members, seem completely unaware of the costs of simply owning these houses, whether or not anyone lives there. I can't imagine the routine, fixed costs of those multi-million dollar mansions on SEC campuses for insurance, the mortgage, utilities, security, maybe still paying staff, etc.
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Regardless of whether or not they understand the costs, the problem for many of them is that they are now paying these very high fees - for a house they have no access to at all - and still have to secure housing elsewhere.
So for the women who didn't live in, they were paying for separate housing + parlor fees, but now their "parlor fees" have skyrocketed. And for the women who were living in, they got voted out of their housing and they are now still having to pay a high fee and also secure other housing, which in many cases can end up being more expensive than living in the sorority house. And although the chapter voted for it, it doesn't necessarily mean that every member agreed. Considering there were four different options, for all we know, perhaps only 30% of members decided to close the house entirely.
It's clearly a tough situation all around, but if a student has budgeted only so much money for housing, sorority, etc., and now that cost has drastically gone up, that may affect a young woman's decision to remain a member.
Everyone is truly losing out here. I have to wonder how this might affect Greek organizations' decisions to build these multi-million dollar houses and whether it could determine at which campuses organizations colonize. As we all know, if you're going to colonize at a school with large Greek houses, you should expect to build or secure one of your own to ensure you're on equal footing and can adequately compete for new members. Could this change certain Greek organizations' expansion strategies (if it hasn't already)?
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