Our Current House

Our Current House

Saturday, October 4, 2008

What We're Doing

As you may or may not know, the SMU campus is experiencing an explosive growth in new construction – not only in terms of the several new academic buildings, athletic facilities, and parking garages on campus, but also in terms of residence renovation – including dorms and greek houses. SMU is expected to pass a resolution soon that will require not only all First-year students (as is currently required), but also Sophomores to live on campus.

 

The state of SMU Greek housing is rapidly changing. As a result of the university’s growth, the university razed several fraternity houses and constructed new ones on Dyer Court just a few years ago. As for the sororities, the current houses were built in the early 1950s and currently do not meet the needs of the current chapters – which are much larger than they were almost 60 years ago.  Several sororities have already re-built, or are in the process of rebuilding:

            Kappa Kappa Gamma (next door to DG) – razed and rebuilt – reopened in Fall 2007.

            Pi Beta Phi (across the street from DG) – razed this summer – will probably reopen in Fall 2009.

            Delta Delta Delta (next door to Pi Beta Phi) – has begun the process of requesting permission from SMU to remodel/raze.


In addition to the physical home changes, the university is again evaluating whether or not to allow another sorority to come back to SMU. If a new house joins the existing 8 sororities, this will further increase the competitive recruitment landscape on campus – exacerbated by January recruitment, stringent “no contact” rules with first year women in the fall, close house GPA averages, and house rebuilding.

 

As a result of this rapidly changing landscape on campus, combined with our increasing maintenance and home repair expenses, the Alpha Upsilon House Corporation, formed a Long Range Planning Committee in Fall 2007 to begin exploration of the options for Delta Gamma. We will reaching out to our members and alumni for help thorughout the process.  Our goal is to raise 6 million dollars and we will need your help to do that!  Please be thinking about what contribution you will be comfortable making and if you might be interested in supporting our efforts through volunteering your time to the effort.  We look forward to reconnecting with everyone soon!