With the majority of fraternities and sororities operating without houses, Greek life at Stanford refutes the stereotype of purely residence-based Greek organizations. While some un-housed organizations hope to move toward their own housing in the future, others are content to remain in their current un-housed state.
Of the 28 frats and sororities recognized by Stanford, only 10 chapters are housed. The housing situation is by no means permanent, however, and there has been some fluidity in Greek housing in the past.
“There was significant fraternity turnover during the 1990s and early 2000s,” wrote Nate Boswell, associate director of Residential Education (ResEd), in an e-mail to The Daily. “I believe Theta Xi, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Phi Delta Theta, and Delta Tau Delta all lost their houses.”
According to Boswell, the University treats housing as a “profound privilege” that must be earned.
“In recent years, in the absence of a robust review process, adherence to housed Greek criteria has varied widely from chapter to chapter,” Boswell said.
“Moving forward [Greek organizations] will need to regularly and actively demonstrate their leadership and positive campus contributions in order to retain housing,” he added.
To enter the process for housing, Greek organizations must submit proposals to ResEd and the Office of Student Activities and Leadership (SAL). Boswell said housed criteria include “effective stewardship,” “student leadership plans,” “contribution to the Residential Education Mission,” “adherence to Student Housing policies” and “campus service contribution.”
There has been some interest expressed by more fraternities and sororities to have housing, according to Boswell, although he did not specifically indicate which groups these are.
Housing status has an effect on group dynamics, and housed and un-housed organizations appeal to different groups.
“All the girls that are in those houses seem to love it,” said Merit Webster ’10, president of the housed sorority Pi Beta Phi. “To be in an organization where we have a home base and a place of belonging, it’s a nice thing. You get to know the girls in the house by going to events together, you see them, their good times and their bad times—when people are stressed out and when they’re celebrating.”
Another advantage of separate housing is readily available meeting space. By having their own space, housed Greek organizations do not have to worry about finding meeting locations.
Laura Hansen ’12, a member of the un-housed Chi Omega sorority, said the lack of a single space can make planning events challenging.
“It’s probably harder to plan meetings and events logistically because we have to reserve a room either in the Quad (for meetings) or in one of the girls’ houses,” she wrote in an e-mail to The Daily.
On the other hand, having a residence can restrict the size of the rush class for housed Greek organizations, as there are only so many spaces within a fraternity or sorority house.
Not every member of a housed organization is able to live in her or his respective Greek house due to capacity: generally, sophomores are given preference as new arrivals, while juniors live elsewhere.
Seniors, too, have preference in order to spend their last year on campus within the house, but there are occasionally conflicts over living arrangements.
In Pi Beta Phi, the solution is a points system to help choose between the seniors, and also to act as an incentive.
“It’s a bummer we can’t have all the seniors in the house,” Webster said. “In a lot of Greek systems, it’s only sophomores that live in the house… sometimes the presidents have to have a fake room because they are required to live in the house but it’s not cool to if you’re the only upperclassman.”
While un-housed groups do not need to worry about fitting everyone into a house, this can sometimes lead to disagreements between housed and un-housed frats and sororities.
“As I understand it, in the past the housed sororities have tried to force the un-housed sororities to take more girls during rush because they don’t have to worry about a space crunch,” Hansen said. “This is fine with me—as long as all the girls we are taking are girls that truly fit with Chi Omega’s values.”
Despite the differences in housing situation, Anthony Bestafka Cruz, vice president and dean of membership intake for the un-housed fraternity Gamma Zeta Alpha, argued that a house is not necessary to build community. For example, he said the six chapters that belong to the Multicultural Greek Council (MGC) and the five chapters of the African American Fraternal and Sororal Association (AAFSA) build a family that is not just focused on housing.
“Because we are un-housed, our brotherhood (or sisterhood) is really focused in the time we spend together,” Bestafka Cruz ‘10 wrote in an e-mail to The Daily.
“We take vacations together, we visit each other’s homes and know each other’s families,” he added. “We are each other’s friends and family at Stanford, and I can’t say I’ve ever heard members of organizations that are housed say the same.”