With sorority involvement on campus reaching nearly 50 percent, Greek life continues to play an integral role in the lives of many women at Washington University. According to some administrators, however, sorority chapters have historically declined the opportunity to cohabitate in on-campus houses.

While nine fraternities currently have houses on campus and another will gain a house in the fall, no such buildings exist for any of the nine sorority chapters on campus.

Sorority members use a selfie stick on stage at Graham Chapel during the Unity Day celebration earlier this January. With this year’s recruitment and the addition of Gamma Phi Beta, nearly 50% of women at Wash. U. are considered part of Greek Life.

Some women who belong to these organizations feel that the lack of housing leads to a power imbalance between male and female chapters, while others feel that the addition of housing would create greater divisions between individual sororities.

Coordinator of Student Involvement and Leadership David Stetter, who works closely with members of Greek life, noted that, while housing for affiliated women could be beneficial to some, it might come at the expense of the cooperation that currently exists between chapters.

“I think it would create a community,” Stetter said. “At the same time, I think one of the strengths of our community is that our sorority community— they have relationships with other chapters.”

According to Associate Vice Chancellor for Students and Dean of Students Justin Carroll, there were at least two distinct instances in the history of the Danforth Campus in which sororities, having been offered the opportunity to develop an on-campus house, declined: once during the rise of Greek life in the 1980s and again during the construction of the Village in 2001.

He believes the desire for diverse friend groups contributed to this.

“The reason why, as I recall, [was that] they had friends that were members of other groups,” Carroll said. “While they really very much cared about the sorority they belonged to, they didn’t want to be confined to be living with just friends…in that group. The other part of it— it just has never been part of our culture.”

Stetter, however, noted that it may have been a decision made by the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC), and not by the local chapters themselves.

Regardless of previous decisions, sorority members today are undecided on the issue.

“I personally would love it if Wash. U. had sorority houses,” Kristen Patino, a sophomore in Alpha Phi, said. “I think it would be a great opportunity for women to get a lot closer and connect more within their chapters and also to provide for a place to easily meet, since most chapters meet on campus in lecture halls to accommodate the size.”

Others agree with Carroll, arguing that living in a sorority house might alienate some members from the wider campus community.

“I do think that it would help people become closer within a sorority, but I also think it would kind of lead to it consuming more of my life and being a way bigger part of my life, not necessarily in a good way,” Carson Platnick, a sophomore in Kappa Kappa Gamma, said.

Platnick also noted her perception of a power imbalance, that she says results from fraternities having housing while sororities do not, which is applicable to many universities nationwide and not unique to Washington University Greek life.

“Whenever you’re at a party, you’re never in your own space, you’re always in the space of someone else, which I think might contribute to a power imbalance in social events,” she said.

“Sorority houses everywhere are dry. I think it shows that Greek life and frats as a whole kind of cater toward bringing girls over and getting them drunk, and as a girl you’re rarely in your own territory, whereas the boys are in their own territory.”

Adam Hoffman, a junior and former president of Alpha Delta Phi, a fraternity that recently gained access to an on-campus house for the coming years, noted the inherent pressure placed on fraternities when hosting parties.

“I think that almost any organization would readily say, there’s a heightened sense of responsibility, legally and morally. And that’s pretty noncontroversial,” Hoffman said.

Stetter agreed that some women appreciate that they don’t have a house to worry about.

“I think there’s maybe advantages for creating community, but I think with that comes more responsibility and more possibility for challenges,” he said. “I think it’s a nice balance we have.”

Stetter also noted that the question of sorority housing might be reopened as on-campus residences evolve.

“I think it’s a very big possibility that we could eventually have a Greek village on campus… there’s always rumors that the whole Upper Row is coming down, and probably, eventually it will… I’m sure at some point [the] Millbrook apartments will come down and more modern housing will be put up there. Maybe sororities will approached at that time and asked if they want to buy into a unit,” Stetter said.

He stressed, however, that any such projects would be several years in the future and that there are no current plans to create sorority housing.

Carroll believes, with enough interest expressed by Greek organizations, the prospect of Greek housing for women is quite realistic.

“There’s no plot to keep them from having it. I think the University and administration would be open to the possibility, if they expressed the desire to do that,” he said.