Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related 1986-7 Sorority House Party

Most of you probably won’t believe this, but I spent my university years actually studying.

Oh, more questions. Would there be a live band? Or maybe a DJ. Would there have been dancing?

Also, I need a made-up name for this sorority. Do I just throw a couple Greek letters together or is there more to it than that? It's Lois' sorority at New Troy University, by the way. Or, rather, it's her mother's sorority and since she's a legacy... and it got her out of the dorm, she was pretty much a shoo in.

How does that work, by the way? Would she have started off living in the dorm and then moved into the sorority house later when she was accepted?

So many questions. Do you know that I don't even know if there were sorority houses at the universities I attended? Or are sorority houses an American tradition?

Well, I can't speak for being in a sorority in college, but I was in a Fraternity. We had a chapter house which was quite large, but there were too many members for them all to have rooms there. Some of the guys lived there while the rest had apartments or still lived in the dorms.

We were selected for the fraternity during rush week. This is a period of one week before classes begin when incoming freshmen come a week early. They tour the various fraternity houses and then the fraternity members vote on who they want to make offers to. Fraternity members then come to the freshmen's dorm room and give them the card or letter with the invitation on it. Some freshmen, particularly those who are attractive or seem to have a lot to offer are given offers by multiple fraternities and have to choose to accept one.

Others are lucky to get one offer and some get none.

In my fraternity, it was usually the upper classmen who got the rooms in the chapter house since most of the freshmen had already committed to the dorms before being selected to a specific fraternity.

I don't know if that helps any. You might try these links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraternities_and_sororities

and for a list of fraternities and sororities:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Fraternities_and_sororities

also...here's a quote from the wikipedia article about fraternity/sorority chapter houses:

Fraternity and sorority houses range in size from three to twenty bedrooms or more. They can usually be identified by large Greek letters or flags on the front of the house. The larger houses generally have a large meeting room and/or dining room, commercial kitchen and study room. There is usually a lounge of some sort, access to which is often restricted to fully initiated members. Fraternities and sororities will also often maintain a chapter room, to which only initiates may ever be admitted and even whose existence may be kept secret. The walls of the house may be decorated with pictures of past chapter events, awards and trophies, decorative (or historic) paddles, or composite photos of members from past years.

In some fraternities or sororities, only the representatives live in the houses while in others the entire fraternity or sorority may live in the house. Other, larger fraternities or sororities may have more than one house to house all of its members.

Hopes that helps!

Hi ML:
Don't know if you are going for a wild party scene with this idea. I do know of a sorority that Lois would probably be in, but not her mother. That is: Phi Beta Kappa
My college was new and we didn't have frat or sorority houses, we just met at meetings.

Artemis

I actually stayed in a sorority house for a few days in 1987. I kid you not.

I was an undergraduate in England at the time and, the preceding year, I'd made friends with two American exchange students, who had been staying in the same residence as me.

I ended up going to visit them towards the end of the summer. My visit coincided with the start of (their) new academic year. As they both lived in the sorority house, that's where I ended up staying, at least for a few days.

To my British mind, the whole sorority / fraternity experience was an incredibly bizarre one, and I'm sure that I only got a very partial glimpse of what really goes on!

The house I was in was actually made up of small apartments -- four I think, though my memory could be failing me here. I remember each had its own kitchen, and one or two bedrooms. And the girls / young women shared, two to each bedroom. Not all the sorority members lived in the house. (And one of those that did got done for using a fake ID while I was there, but I think, maybe, that's another story...)

While I was there, I visited two fraternity houses, and I found these utterly fascinating. The lads seemed to live more communally, in that there would be lots of guys sharing one kitchen, living room etc.

One of these houses was a fairly new build, if I remember correctly.

The other was an older house -- big and rambling, and I absolutely adored it. The frat boy's had beds all over the place, including in the most amazing cubby-holes built into the walls. There were loft beds, and all sorts. And all the rooms seemed to bleed into one another. It was a fabulous maze of a house, one I'm guessing that had originally been built in the late 19th / early 20th century. Big porch. Nice yard. Lovely.

If there was a no-go area in any of these houses for non-members, I didn't notice / don't remember.

I do remember a gin and juice party, which was held early on a Sunday morning. I still can't quite get over the idea of holding a party at seven or eight a.m. AND with alcohol. (ML, I also spent my student days studying, and I found this experience rather difficult to process!) This was at one of the frat houses. I rather gathered that fraternities and sororities would party together.

I seem to remember that, while the sororities and fraternities held events to 'advertise' themselves to freshmen, 'rush' was later in the year. Students weren't allowed to join until at least their second semester or their second year. I don't remember which. Certainly, freshmen weren't allowed to 'try out' for the sororities as soon as they got to the university.

I talked to my friends about the whole Greek thing, and I tried to understand the system, but I never really 'got' it. They certainly found value in it, loving the idea of the close bonds they formed with their 'sisters'.

The official line was that the sorority I was visiting didn't go in for hazing, but they seemed to have some kind of initiation ritual they wouldn't speak about. They also seemed to require that the sisters maintained certain academic standards. (I can't verify; this is just what I was told.)

Me? I'm really happy we didn't have anything similar where I studied as an undergraduate! My friends loved it. I just thought it very, very weird. But, I guess, that's the joys of being from different cultures. Still, I'm glad I had that very quick glimpse into another way of student life.

Krissie

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. )

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. )

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

Just a few minor things that I thought I'd confirm. I was in pre-school in 1987, but I did run my sorority's housing in college a couple of decades later, and some things haven't changed. We didn't let anyone live in the housing until they'd been initiated. Most were sophomores in college by the time they'd gotten initiated but it varies from campus to campus. I also successfully accomplished my 1 campaign promise of a slip n slide.

That's a definite yes to academic standards, both to get into the sorority and to stay in the sorority. You can get put on probation, but I don't think I ever kicked anyone out (*chuckle* they also trusted me to be on the advisory board, I don't know what they were thinking. :p )

You really can slap some Greek letters together. If you feel like going the extra mile, each letter stands for a Greek word that's important to the sorority, or possibly a sentence, but only the initiated members would know it. Our sorority name was Delta Gamma, which stands for 2 words (a D word, and a G word) Our individual, local chapter name "Eta Eta" stands for a phrase.

And good grief our parties were wild, but they were invite-only. It's always been an insurance/liability thing, which most frats in our town didn't worry about. :p Our housing is super small on campus (they don't like any Greek housing at my old college), so we always rented out a restaurant or a country club looking place for parties...or pubs...If you need anything less sedate, I have an awful lot of stories that involve me pulling a bottle of whiskey out of my pirate boot. (We also had really sedate teas, too, during the year for things like alumni and family events, and that's when I made sure our historical photographs were looking spic n span.)

JD

I was in kindergarten in 1987, but I was in a sorority in college. I highly doubt Lois would be in a sorority -- it's much more of a party atmosphere, but I could see Ellen being in one of the really big legacy ones like Kappa Kappa Gamma, and possibly guilting Lois into rushing ... and then her hating it. I actually ended up quitting mine because I was never able to be at official functions since I was always at the newspaper.

Sororities didn't usually have party parties -- they had organized mixers and dances. The sorority girls all went to frat parties, which had loud music and free booze. I think I once drank something that was mixed in what appeared to be a large garbage can. Does that discredit me as a mod? I am thinking the drinks served would be cheap stuff -- beer, vodka with koolaid (yes, seriously) and wine coolers.

BTW, Phi Beta Kappa isn't a sorority. It's an academic honor society. I was in a similiar one; Phi Eta Sigma -- and in order to stay in a sorority, you had to maintain a certain GPA, so a lot of women in my house were in PBK or PES.

Not coming from the culture which embraces them, the thing which has always bothered me about the whole fraternity/sorority system is how much unbearable pressure it must put on kids who aren't deemed acceptable enough to join one.

I simply cannot imagine how much more difficult that must make their lives at a time when life is already very stressful. A time when many are anxious about their role in the world and how they fit in. What it must do to some kids to be told that early on that they are worthless - even before they get out into the world. At a time when they are, perhaps, less able to deal with rejection than they would be later in life.

I suspect it must be a lot of fun for those who get in, but not so much for those who don't. It just seems like one more thing - along with the football hero/cheerleader system - that puts unnecessary pressure on kids when they need it least.

But then all my experience of these systems is based on second-hand accounts and not having lived it myself, so perhaps I'm missing something in the details.

LabRat

Um, we are talking about college students here, not 6 year olds, LOL. I mean, I take your point, no question ... but there are many "rejections" that we all have to deal with in life, and IMO, getting into a particular "club" in college is one of the minor ones in the grand scheme of things.

By the time a person reaches the age of 18-20, when one would rush a fraternity or sorority, he or she will likely have already dealt with having their heart broken by their high school crush, or not getting the job or award they really wanted, or getting cut from a sports team, or being passed over for the chess club, or *whatever*. And those things will only continue as they get out of school and into the real world. Not getting into the fraternity or sorority of their choice would be disappointing, no question. But in the grand scheme of life, I don't consider it a complete soul-crusher. There may be some young people who would be devastated over this, but if that's the type of person they are, if it wasn't this rejection, it would just be the next thing that came along (girl, job, scholarship, etc.) We need to keep some perspective here.

Also, keep in mind that while the Greek system is well known in popular culture, it's not like everyone participates in it. At the major university I attended, I think about 15% of the undergrads were in the Greek system. That leaves the vast majority as "independents". And you could always find fraternities that were having open parties, not to mention a gazillion other things to do on campus, so it's not like your social life was over if you didn't pledge. It was just one small slice of the picture.

Further, there are fraternities and sororities of all types, from the hard partying crowds to the ones that are more nerdy and academic. The fraternity house I lived in that one summer was an Engineering fraternity -- all the guys were math/science/engineering majors and very nice young men. I was also a "Little Sister" (basically, a non-sorority girl who wanted to hang out with fraternity guys) for a year at another fraternity, and they were also on the geeky side. They'd hold mixers or activity nights (not heavy drinking parties) for their Little Sisters, and my "Big Brother" and I stayed in touch for a couple years, even after college.

Now, I say all this as someone who went through the initial info meeting at my university and decided *not* to rush. After hearing about it, I just decided it wasn't for me. But some of my friends continued on with the process, and I got to experience the larger picture through them, and they seemed to really enjoy it. Not to the exclusion of all else in their life, but as just one part of their social life, like one might join a service organization or an interest group.

Also, I did end up pledging a business fraternity later in college (not a live-in kind, but a co-ed professional organization) and I did *not* get in. They selected about half of the people who pledged and I was not one of them. I was bummed out for a few days, then life went on. As I said, we all deal with many rejections in our day to day lives, and in the grand scheme of my life -- even my life up to that point -- this was a minor blip on the radar.

Kathy

Well, I was in my freshman year of college in 86-87. I know my university had frats (one of them did an annual streak through campus during the winter sometime ) but honestly I don't even remember if they had sororities. They were that far off my radar. But then, I'd had years and years of being unpopular so I guess I was used to it by then! I did stay in the official "academic" section of the dorms, which were meant to be quieter for studying, etc. Turns out later, it was also the unofficial gay floor. Very educational year!

I think, also, that it would vary quite a bit by school, in how important sorority/fraternity membership would be. I imagine they're much more prominent at "party" schools. But (as stated above) I haven't much of a clue.

Anyway, I think my point is, that while some kids go crazy over trying to fit in, some other kids just don't give a darn.

PJ

Thanks, everyone. Lots of good information there. It sounds as if I can basically take this in any direction I want and still not be wrong. That's good to know.

That's exactly what I was thinking.

Well, yours is obvious, JD. Obviously, the D word is Drinking and the G word is Gambling.
Anyway, that got me thinking. I was thinking that I'd use something like Gamma Gamma W - but there is no W in Greek . I'd never say in the story what it stood for, but in my mind it would stand for Girls Gone Wild. Anyway, now I have to think up another phrase - that won't be used in the story just to keep everyone guessing

That's sort of what I was thinking. And Lois would hate it... except they have a computer (not exactly something every school kid had in 1987). And I have to say that Lois loves the word processor.

I don't know if there were fraternities or sororities at the University of Saskatchewan, but I do remember hearing that the engineering students (at the time, mostly men) and the nursing students (at the time, mostly women) used to have some pretty wild joint parties.

Anyway, thanks everyone. That gives me some direction for what I want to do. Don't be surprised if some of your ideas end up in my next story.

ML