Well, there is a major argument against the "if you build it they will come model" as many national fraternities will argue which is why fraternities/sororities haven't been coming out of the woodwork with huge sums of money to build houses on campus. Our greek system grew leaps and bounds under Ryan O'Rourke but he's gone now and I don't know of a replacement as of yet, so who knows what turn this takes. Just know that the practice at Aurburn is becoming much more common as organizations struggle with filling and maintaining those bigger traditional greek houses. they're constantly being shut down or sub-leased because the groups can't handle them, especially as a school like FAU where our greek system is so small. This is a sustainable model that fits our university nicely. Keep in mind we are a 9,000 student univeristy when it comes to Greek Life, it will be for Boca campus, full time students, living on or around the university, infact, that number may be even smaller, so we're not ready for the big 20 person houses.

Owldoc, I don't know if you've ever spent any time in a fraternity house but they are the farthest thing from best and nicest  ;D it's usually dirtiest and partiest that describes them. Sorority houses are usually a little different, but that's because they don't allow guys anywhere in there other than the dining room!

The one thing I do know is that I will believe it when I see it. Every year since I came to FAU and joined a fraternity in '99 I've heard oh we're getting houses soon, and this is where it's going to be. Well almost 14 years later and still no houses. So when I actually see them break ground then I will believe it

dusky256fc said

HootinHollerin said

In an IFC meeting around the end of the last semester, the Greek Office said it'll be based off the Auburn model, but more IVA/modern looking, so it'll fit with the rest of the campus

I don't believe it should blend in with the rest of campus, it should stand out with a completely different architecture.

I agree with ya on this, the video posted (thanks for the post by the way) about Auburn just looked like standard dorm living to me… not my idea of greek life on canpus, but then again I am 56!

The look should be different and I agree that we may be still too small to have traditional greek houses on campus but that is just my image. Not in a four story dorm style building. I think that if you can't do it right than wait til you can. But I guess that since the housing is basically standard dorm, it could be just added to regular dorm houising if and when traditional greek houses are built on campus.

A question, is there even a location for traditional greek houses on our campus plan? I not there should be IMHO.

There have been a few locations on campus that were specifically for greek housing but because we're an urban campus that has technically run out of room, those plots of land are being earmarked for other more important things.

The reason they are going for a dorm style building is because they will be university owned so when the fraternities screw up somehow, either by losing manpower, not being able to fill the house, not paying bills or doing something stupid that gets them kicked out/off then the University is able to use that building for traditional dorm space.

That's going to be the noisiest dorm on the whole campus!

Ryan O'Rourke flew the coup too? Goddammit. Where'd he go?

I think that's what happens… every Greek Life administrator we get here leaves in a year or two, so every time housing comes up, they realize it's a big job and just push it out for "5 years from now" knowing they'll be gone and someone else will have to deal with it.

I bet that's why we're "shooting for 2015" instead of next year  >:(

Getting f*cking ridiculous now.

When ever I hear updates from the next leader of the Greek Life Office, to Greek housing, myself or anybody else in Greek life that's a member of TON will share it here.

I can tell you that the biggest issues with Greek housing (rather then when) is that housing doesn't want candles (a lot of organizations rituals involve candles) and housing wants to have RA's on each floor or for each organization, but housing wants the RA's to be GDI's (yeah, that's just not going to fly)

My comment regarding the "best" and "nicest" isn't so much about being clean as it is about amenities and socializing space. Traditional Greek houses are McMansions, and while the individual member rooms aren't that different from regular dorms, the dining rooms don't feel like cafeterias, the living rooms don't feel like… whatever that space is on each floor of places like GPT and HPT… and so on. It feels more like a "home" to me than most dorms, even if it's a complete sh*thole (and I've been to some real Greek sh*tholes in Gainesville  ;D).

Anyway, I understand that the Auburn model makes the most sense for our burgeoning Greek Life system. But I also agree with other people that it should be distinct from the rest of the current dorms on campus, both architecturally and functionally, because it's not a regular dorm.  This project should be special.


New on-campus housing at the University of Cincinnati.


Student housing in Raleigh,NC.


Oh, and regarding this "there's no room for typical Greek houses" B.S…. there's plenty of space. The amount of space the Auburn-style dorm would take up is the same amount of room you could use for 6-8 regular houses. Granted, they don't have room for 20 houses, but they certainly have enough room to build the number of houses that our current Greek system could support.

We have a ton of room left on campus when you consider all the space they offered to the hospital and the preserve around the stadium. The campus can conceivably double in size in the next 50 years.

Heard Ryan got a great job in Denver for a non profit, still doing something with the Greek System, like training or something, not at a university.

it's a tough gig because they always go after some recent grad that wants to get their masters or doctorate for free (it's certainly not for the money) and once they accomplish that they're out.

Those housing systems are pretty sick looking, especially Cincy!

The story I heard from the architect was that all the land was spoken for in Boca, we can't expand any further because it's taken up by houses, commercial proparty, etc so we have to start building "up" instead of sprawling.