The Office of Residential Life is considering a plan that would force Greek organizations to fill their houses before their members can get College housing.
Assistant Dean of Residential Life Deb Reinders said she will meet with Greek presidents, who are currently reviewing the plan, next Monday and she said she hopes to receive any counter-proposals by the end of the month.
The proposed rules are part of an effort to alleviate housing crunches like the one that occurred this fall, Director of Housing Services Lynn Rosenblum said. The propsal would take effect with the Fall term housing deadline this spring.
According to Reinders, 58 beds in Greek houses remained empty this fall, even though more than 200 people were still on a wait list at the end of the summer.
Kevin Bailey '97, president of Alpha Theta coed fratenity said there were two vacancies in coed houses last term and Panhellic Council President Dani Brune '96 said sororities had no vacancies this fall.
The remaining 56 empty beds were in fraternity houses.
"We have a dilemma here that we need to fix," Reinders said. "We consider those beds part of the residential community."
Under the new policy, CFS houses would be required to submit internal housing assignments one week before the College's housing deadline.
Houses would be fined $100 for each day the information was late and could possibly face social restrictions and suspension of College billing privileges.
CFS members will only be assigned College housing once their house has fulfilled its minimum occupancy requirements, which is based on the size and number of rooms in each house.
Under the proposal, houses can request changes to their minimum occupancy numbers but the changes have to be approved by the College or, if the house is privately owned, by its corporation.
Reinders said she met last Tuesday with CFS presidents to discuss the proposal. The presidents were asked to show it to their members and relay any comments and concerns to Reinders.
She said some information collected by the house presidents was passed on last Friday to Coed Fraternitiy Sorority Council President Matt Raben '96 who will "work with the CFS presidents to either adopt this strategy or provide an alternative one."
"So far the majority of houses tend to support it," Raben said. But he added that "some people don't want any change at all."
Raben said the house presidents will need to reach a concensus on the issue but not necessarily unanimity.
Bones Gate President Justin Heather '96 said his house is opposed to the policy.
Heather said his house had only had four empty beds Fall term, despite being recorded by ORL as having 14 empty beds. Bones Gate's standard house occupancy is 18.
"We own our house. We believe we have the right to house as many people as we want," Heather said.
"If you force people to live in the house it may hurt the fraternal bonds and links between house members," he added.
Susan Ettinger '96, president of Epsilon Kappa Theta sorority and Abbey Henderson '96, president of Delta Gamma sorority, said their houses would not be affected by the new policy because they do not have any problems filling their houses.
Bailey said his house takes in two boarders each term to maintain minimum occupancy and to provide necessary revenue for its corporation.
The proposal "is not going to affect us all that much," Bailey said. "We have to fill our beds because we need the money."
But Bailey said he would vote against the proposal if a vote was taken.
"My membership basically thought this was a dumb policy," Bailey said.
Bailey said at a meeting of CFS presidents "the general opinion was that [the policy] is not a good idea but no one seemed to have a better plan."
"Some fraternities have a problem with the fact that they have to fulfill minimum standards at all ... just out of their own best interests they should come up with an alternative plan," Bailey said.
The draft proposal only includes members of the Coed Fraternity and Sorority system, but will be modified to include undergraduate societies, Assistant Dean of Residential Life Alison Keefe said.
