chapter housing
by: girlz
I love my chapter but we need better (or at least updated) housing. Many of us have houses that look oversized brown, boxy, suburban houses.
If we want more prestige and a better greek reputation, we need nicer and more varied houses.
We have only been at this for 30 years, so better housing will help us gain respect in the eyes of other greek systems.
#1by: um
Just ask sororities at Auburn, TCU and Baylor if they would like to have your house. You have no idea how much work, fundraising, investment, etc. went into building the Aggie sorority houses. If you want better housing start working on how you will earn big $$$$$$$ when you graduate. We will need your $50K contribution in about 7 years.
BTW, better housing will not help you gain respect. Think about what you should really do with your time.
Commentby: ummm
AOPi seems to have deep pockets nationally. When they started at Arkansas a few years ago, they put up a giant house right away and I think it's the largest sorority house in the SEC. They'll be just fine in Aggieland.
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by: girlz
I wasn't trying to be ungrateful. But some schools have new chapters that put up big, beautiful houses quickly (my cousin pledged APHI at Alabama; good example).
Just saying that my house (Kappa) looks old and worn. Some of the other houses do, too.
Love my chapter. not thrilled with the house.
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#2by: um well
@^, it sounds like you have a passion for this. Go for it!
Get a few sisters together in your chapter to develop a report on housing needs, reasons for change or improvement and budgets. Present it to your chapter exec. Fine tune and then present to your alumnae.
There is a ratio for each campus that sorority housing generally needs to reach to make larger accommodations cost effective for bank loans and long term payments . Example: if the house sleeps 60 then the sq. footage of study spaces and meeting spaces can be X sq. footage.
Be prepared to show alumnae and the university how you can insure more sisters will live in a larger, improved home instead of off campus apartments, etc.
This can be fun to do!
#3by: houses
@girlz, I love the Alabama new houses. I've been in the GPhiB house and it is pretty amazing. I've only seen outsides and photos of insides of the other new ones. They are really beautiful.
I did find out the master plan for those homes was started prior to 2007. So even though they were constructed fairly quickly, all the planning and financing was not. Their University loaned a lot of the money but the chapters are still responsible for paying it all back. FYI... Girls dine at the houses every day.
Chapters have to take their turn for construction and it's still going on for more years. And so far Theta is not on the list for a new house yet since I believe they renovated their current house a few yrs back. I don't think they have room for any new chapters to colonize there until all the new housing is completed. Then maybe one of the old swing houses can be used for this.
by: ^
by: updates needed badly
The houses that need to renovate/rebuild are Chi O, KKG, ADPi, Gamma Phi, DZ, Theta. AXO is too small and needs an expansion, half # rooms of most houses. KKG is large but needs updated look, they have most land to expand, probably needs to be torn down and rebuilt. XO needs to be torn down too. Theta, not attractive, original house is dark.
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#6by: Go Greek
Those Alabama houses have cost a fortune and it takes 400+ members per chapter paying MUCH higher dues than A&M sororities to pay for them.
Average A&M out of house dues = $1,900/ year
Average Bama out of house dues = $6,200/year (does include mandatory meal plan)
Average A&M in-house = $8,500 / year
Average Bama in-house = $12,400 / year
To rebuild, Alabama-style, is not financially feasible at TAMU. Our chapters aren't big enough and I think a 50-100% dues increase would reduce chapter size, honestly. Plus our houses are much younger than Bama's (or SMU's, who are also rebuilding all the houses) so there aren't any 90 year old alumnae leaving $100,00 to their chapter in their wills yet. The houses who have done extensive remodeling here have had to pull teeth to raise the funds from a relatively young alumnae base.
by: um
Well the Zeta house here is new. Built in about 2009. It's appraisal is about 2.5 million. Gamma Phi house was renovated in 2005. Appraisal about 1.5 million
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by: Go Greek
I'm pretty sure insurance paid out a chunk to rebuild Zeta's house. It was not all funded by actives & alumnae.
Plus, if you want Bama-style/size houses, they are going to cost A LOT more. Like $4-5 million. The ones at SMU have all cost $5-6 million to rebuild and the alumnae have had to put more than 50% down upfront to finance the balance.
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by: kkg house
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by: ^
I'm not the OP, but every time someone posts something about building new houses, you ALWAYS come here and spout some version of "you should be grateful, someone would love to even have a house" etc. etc.
It's not a crime to want better things and it's not a bad thing to set goals and aspirations. Of course it's not going to be cheap or easy, but it's good to have goals in mind and start looking at the numbers.
The fact of the matter is, a strong Greek Life attracts families with a lot of disposable income. These Greeks grow up to donate money back to their institutions and help the community years after graduation. There are a lot of well off, well educated families in Texas who are deciding whether to send their kids off to TCU/Baylor/SMU, the SEC schools, and/or UT/A&M. It's really competitive in the South to get the best Texas high schoolers and every advantage that we can muster we should take.
I'd be really interested if someone ran the numbers though or if Panhellenic opened discussion on long-term plans to revitalize sorority row. We have AOPi now and they'll need a house if they're going to be competitive here. I wonder if we'd begin to see construction in 2018 and whether other houses will join in as well.
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