A total of 426 students will live in the University’s newest residential housing this semester titled the Greek Village.
Since the 1940s fraternities and sororities have been part of the University. Fraternities used to be housed in Fraternity Row on Wooster Street, and Sororities had houses near Thurstin Street.
As of 2010, University officials decided to “strengthen the Fraternity & Sorority Life program,” according to the housing project’s website.
The new Greek Village, existing in the space off Wooster Street between Centennial, Conklin and Harshman Hall, represents all four Greek councils – the Interfraternity Council, the Panhellenic Council, the Multicultural Greek Council and the National Pan-hellenic Council.
Sarah Waters, director of Residence Life, said the official Certificate of Occupancy for all houses was received in early August, after the $33.7 million construction project officially took off in the summer of 2014.
“We are excited to have all of the fraternities and sororities in our new Greek Village in state of the art housing. Chapters now have a new home to serve as a hub of operations in order to promote academic excellence, leadership and service to members and the campus community,” she said.
IFC Vice President of Recruitment Jacob Corsi said the houses will help in recruitment processes be more fair and equal.
In the recruitment process before, larger fraternities monopolized the potential new members, Corsi said.
This year, potential new members will pick their top six fraternities and visit each house. Later they will be able to spend more time with their top three choices before receiving bids.
Not only will the houses help recruitment processes, but Corsi said it will help the members of each organization bond as well.
Thirty-three chapters among the four Greek councils are sharing 33 townhouses in the Village, and the houses vary depending on chapter needs.
There are six house with four bedrooms, 14 houses with 12 bedrooms and 13 houses with 18 bedrooms.
Living in the Fraternity and Sorority residences costs $3225 for a double and $3775 for a single, the same as other suite-style dorms like Centennial and Falcon Heights.
Each Greek organization living in a houses also has to pay a parlor fee, depending on the house size.
According to the housing project’s website 1700 students are involved in Greek life at the University, or roughly 12.5 percent of the undergraduate student body in 39 total chapters.
