Sororities in Housing Crunch!

The Office of Student Activites (OSA), along with Residential
Education (ResEd), will require Stanford’s three housed sororities to
give preference to seniors and juniors wishing to live in their
houses, according to Delta Delta Delta (TriDelt) President Cristina
Cordova ’10.

Sorority houses hold an average of 54 women. The University’s new
preference system would mean that sophomore sorority pledges will not
be able to live in their houses—going against a precedent of in-house
priority for them—if enough upperclassmen take advantage of the new
system.

Leadership in Pi Phi and Theta and members of the Inter-Sorority
Council (ISC) declined to comment on the policy development, which was
discussed in recent meetings with sorority leadership and University
administration.

Sororities will receive an official letter from the University
regarding the policy result at 5 p.m. today, according to an email
obtained by The Daily. Housed sororities must submit their housing
rosters for next year by Monday.

Cordova told The Daily that Assistant Director of ResEd Zac Sargeant,
Assistant Director of Student Activities Amanda Rodriguez and Student
Affairs Officer for ResEd Central Operations John Giammalva discussed
the change with her at a Wednesday meeting. Sargeant, Rodriguez,
Giammalva and OSA Director Nanci Howe did not return multiple requests
for comment.

“We have to give every junior and senior an opportunity to live in
[the house] over sophomores, and we have to give them a final list [of
residents] by Monday or we could lose our house,” Cordova said.

Traditionally, sorority pledges live in their sorority house during
their first year of membership. Seniors receive spots in the house
based on sorority points, which reflect activity within and commitment
to the sorority, while non-staff juniors usually do not live in the
house, unless it is their first year of membership.

This year’s larger-than-usual pledge classes further complicate the
issue of who gets to live in sorority houses and who must enter the
Draw or secure alternative housing.

“All the sororities had to give out 42 bids which is eight more than
last year,” said TriDelt Resident Assistant Kelly Peterson ’09. “It’s
not as big a deal for the un-housed sororities, but it’s a bigger deal
for the housed sororities because we have it in our chapter bylaws
that we have to house all the pledges the first year. It’s a
foundational year.”

Earlier in the quarter, Sargeant and Rodriguez required that all
housed sororities submit proposals detailing who would live in the
house and what sophomore programming and support the houses would
provide, according to Cordova.

TriDelt’s proposal said that all new members and all house staff would
live in the house. The remaining spots were given to seniors based on
points.

Cordova announced the University’s new mandate to all TriDelt
upperclassmen Thursday morning.

“We told all of our women [that] we wanted to keep [the composition of
the house] the same, and if anyone thought they had a higher priority
than a new member, they could call me and let me know and they could
have a spot in the house,” Cordova said. “We would be requiring them
to live in the quad or the triple.”

As of 6 p.m. Thursday, no rising TriDelt juniors or seniors had
contacted Cordova, though they have until Saturday to do so.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/14920268/50109-The-Stanford-Daily-PDF