new sorority houses

Lady, have you been actually reading what's been said? Have you actually talked to A&M girls about this issue? Yes building new houses would cost millions but by that logic Arkansas, Alabama, and other schools shouldn't be expanding either and just keep whatever their first house was for ever and ever. Many of the houses here are OLD and have issues with their foundation like Zeta had which is why they had to essentially evacuate their house and rebuilt immediately. These houses will eventually be torn down so why not build in a larger lot?

Also A&M wouldn't be "telling" sororities anything. Because you obviously never bothered to read, the land and house are privately owned. Nationals and the chapter can move unilaterally to build wherever and whenever they want. There are whispers of some houses talking about remodeling but I'd tell them to wait and save up for a mega expansion. Traffic on Monday nights is already a mess. Our sorority row was not built for this kind of success.

Lady? Thanks for the insults but yea, I'm a graduating senior who has spent plenty of time with local alum at house meetings so I feel as though I understand how it works better than the average chapter member and am fully aware they're privatley owned (lol, that's like telling me the sky is blue). Alabama built the majority of the new houses on the same exact OLD LOTS that the OLD houses were on. They did not move across campus. They're right where they've always been at the stadium. Only 4 houses moved locations and one was DG who was new to campus. Same thing with SMU. They all tore down and rebuilt but again, they're university owned. www.uafacilities.ua.edu/planning/information/2012%20Master%2 0Plan%20Update/Amendment%201%20Sorority%20Expansion%20Master %20Plan.pdf

If you understand that these houses are essentially run like businesses then you would darn well know that if the university stepped in to finance a new project, that is essentially telling the current house corporations to sell their existing properties. Do you think they would keep the old and the new? Probably not. Why? $$$. I'm not saying the university would mandate them sell but you know all 12 would have to move or none at all for it to be successful. And while it is exciting that Greek life is growing at A&M, you have to remember the student body is too. Only 12.5% of our student population is greek, which isn't too far from the 10% it was a few years ago. Bama is about 33%. Big difference.

1. Then I'm assuming you made a mistake when you wrote "what's the University going to benefit from sponsoring a sorority row on campus." On campus. That's the opposite of privately owned, just so you know.
2. It doesn't matter if Alabama rebuilds on old land. They still have to acquire land from the houses adjacent to build bigger. Also, the largest capital expenditure is the house itself, and the entire thing is being torn down and rebuilt. How is that different than A&M? Yeah houses would move but sell the old land and buy new land. It's College Station, land's cheap.
3. Of course if the sororities would build in a new location they would have to sell their old place. No one here is even imagining keeping the old house. Sure some sororities will be house-less during the rebuild but if it's well planned and done incrementally like Alabama then it shouldn't be a problem.
4. I don't think you're getting what we're saying. We're not saying just a few sororities move. We're saying all of them move to a new location. All 12 moving wouldn't be an issue.
5. What's the importance of Greek Life as a percentage of the student body? The issue with the houses deals with real numbers. The houses don't house 10% of the student body, they house 50. It does not matter what the percentage is if the real numbers keep rising. When you were a freshman, your PC numbers were in the 50s. By next year they'll be in the 100s. It's a numbers problem, and you're too blind to see it.

Yes, let's tear down and move 12 perfectly good houses (ok except for Chi-O and ADPi) and rebuild them somewhere else. Good luck getting nationals for all 12 chapters to agree to this. In 20 years when we run into the same problem as the current sorority row, we can just do it again. I agree with the senior girl. For the love of God, count your blessings and be glad we even have houses all in one location.

Your ignorance is so cute! and you get so emotional about this. It's just conversation, so take a deep breath and calm yourself. You're comparing our privately owned situation to a university owned(bama). I'm saying the University would never get into greek housing here because they'll make no money at it. At the end of the day, TAMU is a business, and though they're state owned, they look to make as much $ as possible. When 33% of your student body is Greek, they're able to make more $ than when it's at 10-12%. Plus, they're more likely to bring way more revenue by building a new building to hold a new department or research center that brings in millions of dollars of grants a year.

So then your argument changed. If the University's not going to fund it or give us the land, then the private corporations would and that's when I say good luck doing that and it definitely "would be an issue". Sure, there's land beyond what the University owns beyond west campus, but I'll tell you, if I was a land owner and 12 sororities came knocking at my door wanting to purchase my land, my price tag would all of a sudden quadruple. You're talking an easy $10Mil/house, at which, it's just much easier to renovate or add on to your existing structure for $2-3Mil. xoxo, senior girl

I'm not So but I don't think she's wrong here or over emotional. She made good points and made sure to number them so it's easier to understand. Neither you nor the poster above you addressed the problem at hand. Anyone at A&M can tell you that we will have a numbers problem, but how do we fix it? Like someone previously said, you can't just make the houses bigger because you'd have to add more parking which we don't have. That would probably be the easiest way but we can't. Invite a new chapter to colonize? Probably won't happen soon with the situation with ADPi as it is. It seems like y'all's solution is to do nothing forever and just be "grateful" that we have a sorority row at all, nevermind that our Greek system is well on its way to being the largest in the state. So senior girl it looks like your biggest issue is cost. But that's what Nationals are for, and that's why we plan ahead for years. It's not like anyone is proposing knocking down the buildings tomorrow or anything.

That's probably the least likely of all the options. For one thing, our Panhellenic attends SEC meetings now and most have a policy of "you go to pref, you get a bid." Also more girls = more money, and like you said, it's a business decision. And you know Nationals of all 12 will be pressuring A&M Panhellenic to keep numbers as high as possible for this very reason. While it'd be great to have more sisterhood, that's even more of a dream than building a new row would be. Indiana University is a prime example of exclusivity and a glance at their Greekrank page and Greekchat topics and you can see how well that's going. I can't think of any school in the country willingly making their rush more exclusive, can you? I don't know what sorority you are in (I'm assuming you're in one) but all I can say is I'm sorry that yours does not support you. I can only speak for myself but the explosive growth in numbers these past few years has attracted the attention of our Nationals, and they and our own alumnae are very supportive of expansion plans and are giving us tons of aid to see that growth continues.