For possibly the first time in the history of Dartmouth College, a Greek house has temporarily closed its doors because of a failure to meet occupancy requirements.
When the members of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority came together this past Wednesday for their first meetings of Summer term, they were not in their usual meeting room at 24 East Wheelock Street. This summer, the doors of Kappa are locked, and the sisters are obligated to find alternative places to meet and socialize.
Kappa was required to close for the summer because not enough members were able to live in the house, Assistant Dean of Residential Life Deborah Carney said.
The Office of Residential Life has a number of rules that houses are required to follow in order to stay open. During the Fall, Winter and Spring terms, College-owned Greek organizations are required to fill their houses to maximum capacity. Privately-owned Greek houses have minimum numbers set by their owners.
During the Summer term, the requirements for privately-owned Greek houses remain the same, while College-owned houses are given more leeway and are only required to fill their houses to about 60 percent of their maximum capacity.
Houses are allowed to pull in boarders to meet minimum occupancy requirements, but these boarders must either be enrolled in the College for the term or otherwise actively involved in the Dartmouth community.
The occupants cannot be rising sophomores, nor can they be alumni. Alumni do, however, have the option of submitting a proposal to live in a house as a "graduate advisor" who would serve a "specific purpose," according to Alison Harmon, associate director of housing.
Such rules are what keep houses with small pledge classes, such as Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Bones Gate fraternities, open during the summer.
Housing Assignment Coordinators -- otherwise known as "housemen" -- meet once per term with the Housing Office to discuss ORL housing policies. In addition, the Coed, Fraternity, Sorority, Undergraduate and Senior Society Administration distributes a handbook of policies to the houses.
It remains up to the housemen to educate their members and organize them early enough to prepare a roster of residents that satisfies ORL requirements. Informing members of potential problems in advance is the key to preventing them, Harmon said.
In an informal survey of Greek-affiliated females conducted by The Dartmouth, 17 of 42 respondents said they are living off campus, and all said they made arrangements to live off campus long before becoming a member of a sorority.
"I was told by upperclassmen that everyone lives off campus during sophomore summer, so I had arranged off-campus living plans my freshman year," Kappa Delta Epsilon member Charlotte Lord '06 said.
Members of other houses noted they wanted off-campus housing so that they could to live with friends from other sororities. Others made off-campus housing plans in advance simply because they did not think they could count on housing availability at their sororities.
Kappa President Nicole Magoon '06 explained that many members would have wanted to live in the house. However, all but five of the of the 43 Kappa sisters eligible to live in the physical plant this summer had already signed leases for off-campus housing when the sorority realized their house might have to close.
ORL officials expressed sympathy with Kappa's situation.
"The last thing we want to do is close a house; we work and work to find a situation that satisfies both our requirements and the needs of the girls in the houses," Harmon said. "It was really a surprise to everyone that there was this problem."
ORL reportedly worked with Kappa throughout the spring to try to fill the house. Officials extended the roster deadline from May 14 to June 14.
The sorority would have needed to find 11 people to live in the house and was able to put together a roster of 15 boarders, Magoon said. The problem was that only 10 boarders were taking classes.
Kappa was not the only house on campus to experience difficulties meeting occupancy requirements for the summer.
Katherine Sholten '06, a member of the Sigma Delta sorority, echoed the frustration of many Kappa members. She was not made aware of potential openings in the house, or the fact that they would have to be rented out to non-members, until the end of spring, but it was too late for her to withdraw from her other housing commitment.
"If I had known that housing would be so easy to get in the sorority house during the summer, I might have more seriously considered living there," Sholten said.
KDE Spring President Katherine Heyman '05 noted that the spring rush class made all of the difference in filling KDE's physical plant. "[Closing] would have been a possibility if no spring rush girls had wanted to live in the house, but we literally asked them the day after they sunk their bids and we got enough girls," Heyman said.
Heyman suggested moving rush from Spring term to the Fall term "so that people don't sign leases before they rush."
While Magoon expressed frustration with the fact that Kappa does not have a house, she is optimistic that the sorority will remain active and united throughout the summer.
Kappa has already appointed Katie Fahey '06 and Jen Romig '06 as chairs in charge of organizing meetings and finding alternative meeting places each week.
"Although I know everyone was disappointed when Kappa closed for the summer, I don't think it will negatively affect the social life or dynamics of the '06 Kappas. If anything, I see our bonds being strengthened since everyone has to make the extra effort without a set social space," Romig said.
One proposed Kappa t-shirt slogan reads: "No House, No Problem."
