Before I was ever affiliated—proud Sigma Chi over here—I heard that Greek housing was an inevitability for UNF. While I know that I’ll never see a frat house in my lifetime as an undergrad, I think we gotta get started.
Greek housing at UNF is not a dream—it has already been written, perhaps literally, that our campus will have designated spaces for fraternities and sororities to set up houses.
But hey, said a non-Greek member, why do we need Greek housing? We’ve had fraternities and sororities on campus forever, why change things and invest now?
As a late convert—if that really is what I am—It took being in this organization to understand how difficult it is both on Greek organizations and the university to not have houses.
Have you ever thought of where fraternities and sororities have their weekly chapter meetings?
Time and resources are spent weekly for Greek organizations on campus to obtain access to rooms, negotiate renting areas of campus to hold events and meetings and even do simple things like setting up tables.
Our own university president John Delaney is actually a brother of Delta Upsilon—a fraternity that has a chapter on our campus. While Delaney hasn’t put Greek housing on the fast-track, it has been made a priority. But why?
Likely President Delaney understands the transformative power of Greek organizations on any campus, including our own. A school like ours is striving continuously to change it reputation from being a commuter campus to a heavily involved welcoming campus.
Although we don’t like to admit it, we are competing continuously with larger and older schools, namely UF and FSU, to attract more students and to obtain a larger and stronger collegiate profile.
We’re not solely trying to compete with Gators and Seminoles, we have more important things to do—we are, however, attempting to grow our university.
So, what would Greek housing actually do?
Most importantly, it would condense organizations to their houses, fostering a stronger bond to both your fellow brothers and sisters, but also a stronger bond between student and campus.
Greek housing would still be highly regulated like any other housing area on campus—the difference is that there would be a sense of home for members that would allow each brother or sister to live, work and yes, play on campus.
The fear of some is likely the live version of the famous Animal House—ahh what a great film to completely shatter the legitimacy of the leadership building and philanthropy supporting organizations that just so happen to be represented by Greek letters.
Along with alleviating stress on campuses, Greek Housing would promote more Greek alumni involvement, and where there are alumni, there are opportunities for students post-grad.
This year in particular, there has been a greater push by student affairs on the UNF campus to engage students—all week, every month, everywhere. Osprey Productions, Housing and Residence Life and Campus Life combined have joined forces to make UNF the place to be—to stop this commuter school mentality.
Although not the hard and fast rule, Greek Life at UNF finds itself heavily involved with nearly every major event that occurs on our campus—Lip Sync, basketball games/tailgates, homecoming and of course the plethora of philanthropies that are sprinkled throughout the school year by organizations all across our campus, not just Greek.
What better way to engage a population by having them resident just down the street?
While Greek Housing at UNF is still a ways away, we can be certain as alumni that one day we will be able to drive through Greek Village on the journey to find our letters affixed on a Greek house.
For a school always aiming higher in pursuit of a greater profile, Greek housing would afford students and the campus alike a greater legitimacy.
So let’s get going on UNF’s Greek Village. Cheers.
