Fraternity/sorority living quarters question

[FigmentSpark]

First, I went to a university that didn't believe in fraternities or sororities, because they were exclusive clubs, so forgive my complete naivete on the subject. So with that caveat, I assume from all the movies that fraternities and sororities have living quarters or 'houses' that their members share, possibly with a den mother/father, if movies are to be believed.

Anyway, my question is what type of accommodations do they usually have? Also, how does a new student pledge and then move their accommodations once they are accepted? Or do they move at all? Are the accommodations only for second years and up? I know where I went to school, we paid for a whole semester of our room to that residence. If we moved out, there weren't any refunds. It just seems complicated for that reason so I must be missing something.

 

[KrazeeK120]

My guess is that every school does things differently, and possibly each individual Greek house does things differently.

I was in a sorority. I joined during the first semester of my sophomore year and was allowed to move in at the beginning of 2nd semester because they had space in the house, but I could have waited until the beginning of junior year to move if I wanted to. Freshmen were not allowed to live in Greek housing per university rules. They had to wait until sophomore year to move in. Seniors could move off campus if they chose to. I’m on a one-year hiatus, but I’m actually on the advisory board of my sorority and they still have the same policies in place as far as I know.

There may be houses that are not large enough to accommodate everyone who wants to live in...I’ve heard of some places having a floor of a dorm for “overflow.”

It may be best to check with the university to find out what their policies are. I would be surprised if any university would allow a freshman to move into Greek housing. I think most universities require students to live in the dorms for at least their freshman year unless they’re living at home with their parents.

ETA: there are some universities that do not have houses for Greek students at all. Again, best to check with the individual university.

 

[robinb]

My daughter is in AXiD. She stayed in her house her sophomore year in a room with a roommate. Her roommate left mid semester and she lived alone for the rest of the semester. I don’t believe her roommate received a refund as she signed a full year lease. Just like she would in a regular apartment. Most sororities have girls living in the house in their sophomore or junior year and then only one year unless they are in leadership.

 

[tvguy]

It depends. My daughter's college had Sororities and Fraternities but none of them had houses. They live in the same section of a dorm. Some Universities control all the housing, and the Fraternities and Sororities have their own houses, and only members live in them, but they are owned by the University. Some Universities have a combination of University owned and privately owned houses. And some Universities only have have only off campus houses owned by the Fraternity or Sorority with no University ownership involved. Every house I am familiar with had a "House Mother", usually an older single woman. Never have seen myself a "House Father"
As for Pledging, again, it depends on the University. I think almost all have "Rush", a time period when the Fraternities and Sororities have open houses to show off what they offer and stand for, and potential members show off what they can offer to a house. Some Universities allow Freshman to join and move into Fraternities and Sororities. My University allowed you to Rush after you had completed your first semester Freshman year, but you could not move in until your First semester Sophomore year.
As for accomodations, again, it depends. My Fraternity owned 2 houses next door to each other, and a third house 4 doors down that we leased (from the University) off campus, right across the street from Campus. Our main house was a 6 bedroom, 3 bathroom 4,500 square foot house that had an apartment for the house mother, a commercial kitchen (we employed our own cook), and a dining area. Individual rooms generally housed 2, there was one 3 person room, and one 4 person room. This house was built in 1939 as an off campus girls residence, so it was built as basically a small dorm. The house next door was a regular 3 bedroom 2 bath residence, with the Dining room walled in to add a 4th bedroom. It had 3 two person rooms, and 1 one person room. The third house, the leased one, also was a residence, 3 bedroom, 2 bath.
However, some Fraternities and Sororities have sleeping porches. One big room where everyone sleeps, but small individual rooms to store your clothing. Now, I have been in Sororities where there is one bed in the individual rooms, but those are only supposed to be used when someone is no feeling well.
As for room and board cost, it can vary. University owned Fraternity and Sorority houses often charge the same rate as living in the dorm plus what ever social and membership fees the Fraternity and Sorority charge on top of that. Privately owned houses can do basically whatever they want. In my case, the total cost of everything, room board and all social fees was less than the dorm. Some Fraternities and Sororities do not offer board, and either have a kitchen where you can prepare your own food, or you have to buy a meal plan from the University dining hall.
Long answer, but sounds like you need to be asking a lot of questions about the Fraternities and Sororities at the specific University you are interested in.

 

[Skippy918]

I had some friends who joined fraternities and since there was limited room space in the house, there was a wait list so seniors got priority. Some of my friends had to wait until junior year to move in because of space. The fraternity houses were privately owned so the rent was really cheap. The sorority houses were owned by the school. I heard it was due to some old blue book law, with not allowing a certain number of unrelated women living together.

 

[mamamary]

My daughter’s college does not have housing for sororities and fraternities. She lives in an off campus apartment with a few of her sorority sisters.

 

[mjkacmom]

It varies a lot. At my college sororities didn’t have houses. My son lived in a couple of frat houses in college. My daughter was invited to live in a sorority house after she pledged, fortunately it wasn’t mandatory because she had already signed a year lease off campus (and since the sorority house was on campus and campus closed to covid she would’ve had nowhere to live). It’s different everywhere.

 

[design_mom]

I agree it depends on the school. At my son’s school, only the fraternities have houses off campus. Freshmen can’t live there. Sophomores can get an exemption from the usual 2-years-in-the-dorm rule if they live in the sanctioned fraternity house. Upperclassmen can live in the frat house on a space-available basis but can also move into off-campus housing. Although the off-campus houses are not owned by the fraternity in any way, it’s my understanding that the leases are often passed down... so some have been inhabited by members of the same fraternity for years and years.

Sororities do not have off-campus sorority houses. Instead they have on-campus “sorority suites.” The suites are large living/study/kitchenette areas in a dorm. Sophomore members of the sorority usually have rooms in the same dorm as the suite. Upperclass members can choose to live in the sorority dorm or off campus but still have access to the suite either way.

* DS’s school does freshmen recruitment at the beginning of second semester. There are no first-semester freshmen members.

EDITED to add: At my school, many years ago, there were off-campus houses for both fraternities and sororities... but I have no idea what the rules were. That was not my scene.

 

[_19disnA]

Arrangements vary by school. If you already attended college and/or graduated, it sounds like you are asking more of a hypothetical question unless you are asking on behalf of someone just starting college.

 

[luvsvacation]

My daughter is a freshman and she joined a sorority. At her school they do not have houses. The members live in dorms or apartments.

 

[lilypgirl]

It depends on the school. My daughter's school has literal mansions and the sorority housing requirements are specific to each chapter. She is living in the house next year as a sophomore and if there are more girls wanting to live in the house than spots it is done on some what of a point system. GPA and involvement have a lot to do with it. If by chance the spots aren't being filled than there is a plan B but would rather not publicly announce it( I am also a member of this sorority) but that is rarely an issue. The contract is for a year and pretty standard to the university's housing contract. All active members are required to eat in the house so everyone pays for the meal plan and that is standard for all NPC chapters on this campus.

Most rooms are 2 girls and they are very nice with no real need to bring any furniture and are very spacious with lots of storage. There are a few 4 room person suites which are also spacious with lots of storage. The bathrooms are also very nice and one of the things I like is that there are floor to ceiling doors for toilets and showers. The house is very nicely decorated .


My school did not have sorority houses but we had our own "dorms " so to speak with our chapter rooms in the basement. There were 2 sororities per dorm and you had to be a member to be given access to your chapters floor and chapter room . Each sorority had their own floor in a 3 story dorm that you could decorate and set up however you wanted and it housed about 60 girls. EC got the first priority and then it went by the point system. Our chapter rooms had full kitchens and were really really nice.

 

[aprilchem]

As other say, it varies. The institution I work at has fraternities and sororities. Most of them have houses (large victorian homes) located on our campus. The fraternity/sorority owns the house but my college owns the land. Some, but not all, of the members live in the house (maybe 10-15, depending on the size of the house). Meetings and group activities occur there as well, and those who don't live in the house but who are in the fraternity/sorority can use the kitchen and other facilities.

We also have co-ed fraternities that have houses as well. Those are mostly focused organizations - we have one that's focused on community service, for example.

 

[EACarlson]

I heard it was due to some old blue book law, with not allowing a certain number of unrelated women living together.

This was an issue at the university my wife attended. They had Fraternities but were not allowed to have Sororities because there was a city ordinance that declared any house with over a certain number of unmarried, unrelated women living together was by definition a brothel. Gotta love some of the old frontier town laws that are still on the books.

 

[mjkacmom]

This was an issue at the university my wife attended. They had Fraternities but were not allowed to have Sororities because there was a city ordinance that declared any house with over a certain number of unmarried, unrelated women living together was by definition a brothel. Gotta love some of the old frontier town laws that are still on the books.

That’s why my college didn’t have any sorority houses.

 

[robinb]

This was an issue at the university my wife attended. They had Fraternities but were not allowed to have Sororities because there was a city ordinance that declared any house with over a certain number of unmarried, unrelated women living together was by definition a brothel. Gotta love some of the old frontier town laws that are still on the books.

Being in a sorority was very important to my daughter when she was choosing a college. She refused to consider a specific school because they had the same laws still in place!

 

[Skippy918]

As other say, it varies. The institution I work at has fraternities and sororities. Most of them have houses (large victorian homes) located on our campus. The fraternity/sorority owns the house but my college owns the land. Some, but not all, of the members live in the house (maybe 10-15, depending on the size of the house). Meetings and group activities occur there as well, and those who don't live in the house but who are in the fraternity/sorority can use the kitchen and other facilities.

We also have co-ed fraternities that have houses as well. Those are mostly focused organizations - we have one that's focused on community service, for example.

Our school had the old Victorian homes as well but they were in pretty bad shape. I would have loved to see these houses restored to their former glory. They were so old, that the back half of the house was the servants area including the kitchen. Separate staircase and everything.

 

[robinb]

Here is the AXiD house in Madison, WI:

http://www.thebluebook.com/iProView...struction-projects/alpha-xi-delta-241119.html

 

[leebee]

It really is different on each campus. I was a DZ at URI back in the late 70s. All sororities except one had a house. The houses had wings, set up like dorms, with 2 girls in a room, shared bathroom for the floor. Anyone who was a sister (so not pledges) could live in the house, although seniors had priority. I think we had space for 50-60 sisters, and rooms were usually full. My boyfriend (at the time) was a Phi Sigma Kappa as the same school. All of the frats had houses, but their arrangements were different from the sororities. The guys all slept in one giant space on the top floor of the house ("The Deck"), filled with bunk beds. Then they were each assigned a room with a single bed and space for their desks, bureaus, etc. Usually 3 guys were assigned to each room. The bed was for "overnight guests" but the brothers all slept upstairs in the deck. For both frats and sororities, the House Corporations owned the buildings (so owned by the organization) on land leased/rented from the university. For the one sorority that didn't have a house, Res Life designated an entire floor in one dorm for them, and that's where the majority of the sisters lived.

Where I work now, the fraternities all have houses. I am not sure about the sleeping arrangements, but I know my ex-SIL had his own room, and I don't think he had a roommate. Frat houses are still owned by the individual frat and sit on land owned by the University, I think. I know more about the sororities, as my DD is a DZ, too. NONE of the sororities have houses (although one recently rented a disbarred/suspended frat's house for a year) and the rumor is that more than X women living together is a brothel, although I question that as there are single-gender dorms. Anyhow... The sisters live wherever they wish, and some get a house/apt off campus and live together. Each sorority has a designated "Chapter Room" in a dorm, so there is space for them to have meetings, functions, etc. on campus.

It really IS different at each school.

 

[Praying Colonel]

First, I went to a university that didn't believe in fraternities or sororities, because they were exclusive clubs, so forgive my complete naivete on the subject. So with that caveat, I assume from all the movies that fraternities and sororities have living quarters or 'houses' that their members share, possibly with a den mother/father, if movies are to be believed.

Anyway, my question is what type of accommodations do they usually have? Also, how does a new student pledge and then move their accommodations once they are accepted? Or do they move at all? Are the accommodations only for second years and up? I know where I went to school, we paid for a whole semester of our room to that residence. If we moved out, there weren't any refunds. It just seems complicated for that reason so I must be missing something.

Where I went to school Greek societies were heavily regulated. The houses were essentially dorms like other dorms, just smaller & open only to members of that fraternity/sorority. Pledges and new members couldn't move in until the next year--if then. Sometimes the fraternity/sorority may have too many members for their house and then they decided who got to live there. Usually officers got first dibs, then members by seniority.

Since I've graduated they've changed the houses so that they only have rooms for officers to live there--all other members have to live in general housing, which I think would really detract from the experience. But then again, I remember a Homecoming where alums from 30 years ago talked about how their houses were all off-campus and unregulated, and they know our form of Greek life and housing was inferior to theirs. So I guess it's all relative.

 

[tvguy]

This was an issue at the university my wife attended. They had Fraternities but were not allowed to have Sororities because there was a city ordinance that declared any house with over a certain number of unmarried, unrelated women living together was by definition a brothel. Gotta love some of the old frontier town laws that are still on the books.

Wonder if that law applies to dorms? My college had two all girls dorms. One men were prohibited from being in except on Sundays from Noon to 3 pm. They houses a lot of women from outside the U.S., usually from nations where co-ed dorms are illegal. Another girls dorm, men could visit anytime. Had regular co-ed dorms with mens and womens restrooms, and one dorm that was co-ed with unisex bathrooms (God love going to College in the 1970's)