Most Greek houses don't struggle to cram their basements. Several of these organizations, however, are struggling to fill their bedrooms, forcing some houses, like Tabard and Phi Tau coed fraternities, to pull in non-members.
Dartmouth residency quotas require that Greek organizations house a minimum number of occupants per term, in order to ease up pressure in overcrowded College housing and generate more revenue in rent for the house themselves.
Vacancy in Greek houses doesn't always indicate fading membership. Some houses lack enough members on campus to meet the College's quota; others have too many members that decide to live elsewhere.
Although some students are currently living in temporary spaces, according to the Office of Residential Life everyone who applied for fall housing has been offered a room.
With 15 residents this fall, Kappa Delta Epsilon sorority is struggling to meet its minimum quota of 16. And that's after several sorority members who had planned to reside in dormitory rooms on campus decided to live in their house to help fill its occupancy requirement.
"I was working all the way through Spring term just to get people to sign on for the fall. I was bugging people on blitz for weeks," said KDE member Jodee Thompson '05.
College regulations that bar freshmen and sophomores from living in Greek houses can make the process even more difficult.
"We tried to pull in a nonmember who is a friend of someone in the house, since she needed housing. But she is an '07, so we couldn't pull her in," Thompson said. "It was hard working with the rules. If we don't fulfill the occupancy requirement, ORL and CFS will put it in our file as a disciplinary warning, and you don't want too many of those filed."
With some students still living in temporary housing such as converted common rooms, the Office of Residential Life also has an interest in placing boarders in privately-owned Greek houses.
For the nine non-affiliated residents of the Tabard, the location was their last resort due to the to fall term housing crunch.
"I was placed on a late waitlist, and I received a letter that basically said to find housing on your own," Jamie Kennedy '04 said. "My friend told me that Tabard always has openings and to see if there were any spaces for the fall."
Non-members currently outnumber Tabard affiliates in the Webster Avenue residence this fall, with only six actual members living in the house. This is not typically the case, according to Tabard house manager Courtney Chandler '05.
"Ordinarily members live in the house, and there are maybe one or two non-members," Chandler said.
Yet, even with nine non-members Tabard still falls short of their minimal housing occupancy requirement of 17 residents. Other houses have experienced similar difficulties, leading some organizations to contact the Office of Residential Life for assistance.
