I went to college in the late 80's, and though I wasn't in a sorority myself, I had friends who were and I attended some parties at their houses. Also, I rented a room in a fraternity house one summer so I have some first hand knowledge with what that was like.
Like fraternities, sororities in a big university often have cultures or reputations that differ from one another -- for example, some are going to be considered more prestigious than others or be known to have wilder parties or thought to have smarter/more studious members, etc. That reputation isn't always consistent from school to school -- one friend had transferred to my university after a year at another school and ended up not rejoining her old sorority, which she'd loved, because she didn't feel she clicked with the one at the new school -- though there are some big name organizations that might control that more. (For example, one of my neighbors growing up got into a sorority that was known as being only for wealthy girls and my parents were actually called by the pledge committee to verify what her father did for a living and what kind of car he drove! IIRC, the sorority was Kappa Kappa Gamma, but everyone on campus referred to it as Visa Visa Mastercard.
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The typical path into a sorority in a big university is that women will pledge during the winter/spring of their freshman or sophomore year. Many schools have a residency requirement that all freshmen are required to live in the dorms, but after that, they are free to move off campus. Some sorority houses will be too small to house everyone who wants to live there, while other houses will have a residency requirement -- you must live in the house for two years, say. It really will depend on the house. (Which, for your purposes, means you can have Lois's house have whatever rules best fit your story.
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The fraternity and sorority houses that I visited (and lived in) were set up "rooming house" style. They tended to be very large, older houses with common areas downstairs (as Shayne said, meeting room, dining room, industrial-sized kitchen, living rooms) and a bunch of bedrooms and bathrooms on the upper floors. Some rooms might be singles, others might be doubles or triples. In general, the sorority houses were kept in better shape than the fraternity houses, probably from a combination of female living habits, tighter rules, and tamer parties. The girls will probably have a "house mother" either living in or visiting regularly, and/or a cook who will prepare their meals for them and serve it at a given time. There will likely be a rule that girls can't have their boyfriends sleep over, though whether it would be possible to sneak one in for a single night, I have no idea.
As for parties, they vary from casual events to formals and everything in between. They're probably planned out at least a few weeks beforehand and have a theme -- a get-together with a specific fraternity house, say, or a somewhat dressy "invite your non-sorority girlfriends" party. At my university, fraternity parties were often drunken bashes where anyone could walk in from off the street, but sorority parties tended to be invite only and a bit more civilized. But I have no idea if that would be true of all sororities -- I would imagine something more wild could work into your story (either by design or a party that got out of control) if you wanted it to.
Music would either be popular music (80's Top 40 stuff) or a live band (which would cost more but might be a draw, if they felt they needed it). Drinks would probably include a keg of beer and sweet fruity mixed drinks -- think Fuzzy Navels, Slo Gin Fizzes, and other girly stuff like that. <g> There might also be a punchbowl, maybe with a house punch recipe that has been passed down for years. (Maybe that's something Ellen would remember and tell Lois about.) The walls will be decorated with large portrait collections of all the girls in the house, either a large group photograph or individual formal portraits all displayed with names underneath and the year they were taken. These historic photographs are a big thing -- Lois would be able to find the portrait from the year her mother graduated hanging somewhere in the house.
OK, that's all I can think of right now. Wow, talk about taking me back to my younger days, LOL.
Kathy
