Rollins’s Greek life housing needs a change to keep up with the evolving nature of the Fraternity and Sorority Life (FSL) on campus.
The Rollins College Greek life housing situation is unlike most colleges in the United States. While most universities and colleges keep the FSL organizations off campus in houses rented by the college or alumni, Rollins provides on-campus housing to these organizations.
While this is good for the fraternities and sororities in a variety of ways, such as being able to pay lower fees and knowing the history behind the houses, many issues have arisen with the decision to keep Greek life on campus.
Not every FSL organization has a house on campus. However, the chapters are not allowed to buy houses off-campus. As such, eight of the 12 FSL organizations use residential halls as houses on campus.
This conflict of space stems from the limited room on campus, making it nearly impossible to build new halls without tearing old ones down. This leaves the college with eight houses to disperse between 12 organizations.
Alpha Delta Pi is one of the sororities on campus without a designated house this year. Brought to the Rollins campus in 2015, Alpha Delta Pi has grown fast and is now one of the biggest sororities on campus. According to Assistant Director of Residential Life Gabrielle Bell, when Alpha Delta Pi was founded on campus, “all buildings eligible to be RO (residential organization) housing were occupied at the time.”
To make up for the inability to provide houses for FSL organizations in the past, they’ve been given a wing in either Sutton Place or Holt Hall. This designation, while keeping the organization together, limits its capabilities.
National Greek life chapters are extremely strict about what goes on inside of houses. If anyone with access to the house isn’t a member, then the organizations lose their ability to host chapter programming in the building. This ranges from anything from executive board meetings, sisterhood/brotherhood events, and chapter meetings.
If anyone with access to the house isn’t a member, then events and chapter meetings cannot take place. Thus, gaining a wing in a hall will not reap the same benefits as having an actual house on campus.
One of the organizations with access to an on-campus house is Non Compis Mentis, a sorority exclusive to Rollins. This year, Non Compis Mentis could not fill their house, Mayflower Hall, with members and were therefore limited to only the third floor. This trend has been present with the FSL organizations over the last few years, hence why Rollins has a rule that the houses must be filled to a minimum of 80 percent capacity, or they non-members will be assigned to the house as well.
An easy solution I see would be to give the house to Alpha Delta Pi and readjust based on membership rates in the next few years. A more radical solution for Rollins’s inability to provide the FSL community with equal housing on campus is allowing those organizations to have a home off campus.
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