For the past year, the talk of Greek Life on CNU’s campus has been the new Greek Village. When the million dollar mansions were first announced there was excitement, drama, and competition about getting to live in these brand new houses! Luckily, my organization was picked to be the first residents of one of these gorgeous mansions. Little did we know how much trouble these mansions would become. The excitement to live with sisters is still there, but now we have constant competition with the organizers of this entire project.
The stigma surrounding these houses is synonymous with “spoiled”, “srat living”, and “elite.” When I tell someone I am living in the new greek village, there is a split second of judgement, then followed by fake excitement and a half-hearted “oh that’s gonna be cool!”. The mansions seem pristine from the outside, but when we look at the facts regarding this living space, CNU truly didn’t think it through.
The village is specifically junior and senior style living, but when compared to other upperclassmen living on campus, it doesn’t suffice. Neither CNU Village nor CNU Apartments have any doubled rooms, and Rappahannock only has a few. This new Greek living is made up of mostly double rooms. House A has 10 single rooms and 8 double rooms, and House B has 10 single rooms and 7 double rooms. In House A 16 of the 26 people living in this house are in a double room as a junior or senior, and in House B 14 of the 24 living in this house are in a double room. On top of that, there are only 4 single rooms per building that have their own bathroom, so the other 6 singles share a bathroom between the two of them, much like freshmen dorms. Looking strictly at numbers, it doesn’t quite make sense why this is junior and senior living only. If anything, it’s more appealing to sophomores who would have nicer double rooms than their peers.
The floor plans of the greek village show a single room as being about 10 feet by 13 feet. The average single room on East campus and in Rappahanock is 12 feet by 12 feet. Looking at the numbers it’s almost the same square footage per room, so sure the price shouldn’t be so different! Not quite. Staying in the new greek village costs the same per semester as a 10 month lease in Rappahannock, which would make sense since the rooms are the same size. Except, Rappahannock gets an almost full sized kitchen per apartment, a washer/dryer combo in each suite (that the resident can use at no charge to them), as well as a decent sized, furnished, living room. Each greek house has 1 regular sized kitchen, a microwave and fridge per room, and 1 chapter room that can hold about 50 people. Each chapter will be about 95 sisters at the end of Fall semester and CNU built these mansions in order for us to hold chapters each week in them, but they didn’t check our chapter numbers, rendering these rooms rather useless. Once again, I’m not sure why we are paying junior and senior living prices when we are getting residence halls much more similar to Warwick than East Campus or Rappahanock.
Another huge problem was the lack of communication and consultation that went on throughout this project. First off, no organization signed any contract. In February of 2016, acceptance letters of the offer for the house were issued to Dean Hughes, and it stated that we could back out of this deal when we got actual pricing and details on the house. The roster for the house was due before any housing lottery was held on campus, and no organization received a housing agreement to sign until the end of June, leaving us no choice but to accept the offer otherwise organization members wouldn’t have anywhere to live. The housing agreement was also the first time we were told the official price of living in the house and that there were added amenities we didn’t ask for that drove the parlor fees up (this is what the organization’s dues pay). The lack of communication with the organization's leaders through the year was extremely unacceptable on CNU’s part. They didn’t have facts straightened out so they had no information to provide to the girls and guys living in these houses. They supposedly “consulted” with other schools with the same type of housing, but didn’t bother to tailor that information to CNU’s campus. When any student leadership reached out to the people in charge of this project, we were immediately brushed off and ignored. However, as soon as Alum or parents got involved, they had time to answer the emails. The blatant disrespect based on the fact we are students caused friction on both sides of this project through the entire school year.
Lastly, CNU is known for getting things done last minute, but maybe we should have waited another year before opening them, instead of making the workers rush through this project, and finishing the building only one week before campus opens for the year. I work on campus at school and had to be here 2 weeks before classes start, but I didn’t have anywhere to live because the mansions weren’t done yet. As I write this article in my temporary living space in James River hall, I hope people realize this isn’t just a sorority girl complaining about her million dollar mansion, but a student who doesn’t think CNU was organized enough to take on a project like this.
Getting to live with my sisters in a brand new gorgeous building is an honor, and I am so proud of my organization for earning the right to display letters on these mansions. However, I hope CNU realizes the mistakes they made with pricing, grade restrictions, and communication and makes changes for these mansions future’s and any other projects they try to conquer in the coming years.
