University Housing wants more fraternity representation on campus

Fraternities at NKU will be contacted this fall by the housing office, in hopes that they will push forward with setting up their own Greek affiliated floors in Callahan Hall.

Two sororities, Phi Sigma Sigma and Delta Zeta, are taking advantage of the opportunity and have floors reserved for this upcoming fall semester.  That brings the total number of sorority floors in Callahan to five for this coming fall, but the only fraternity-affiliated floor being Sigma Phi Epsilon.

“We plan to extend an outreach to fraternities in the fall,” said Arnie Slaughter, University Housing director. “We would love to have them.”

According to Slaughter, the Greek affinity and learning community floors are opportunities for members of organizations on campus to live with other members and have a place for “brotherhood and sisterhood bonding,” similar to the way Greek organizations at other universities can do with houses dedicated to their organization.

Each floor must have 20-22 members, according to Slaughter, but one room can be used as an office or a small meeting room. Ultimately, the organizations are left to decide how they want to use their space.

The floors are “a place to bond and study,” said Katarina Morris, floor manager for Phi Sigma Sigma.

“Members can come to the floors and use the areas for study buddies, and can use the area as a meeting place,” she said. “It’s like a having a house, just with less space.”

Slaughter said that the process to get the floors reserved is easy and doesn’t cost more to get into than a normal room would.

“Housing said that as long as we had 20 people pay the $200 deposit by the specified date, then we get the floor,” Morris said.

After acquiring the floor, the housing office and floor managers of the organizations can then meet and go over how the floor and rooms will be decorated.

The housing office doesn’t provide renovations above what is required for the floors, but organizations can acquire funding from outside sources, like a grant from their national headquarters or fundraisers, to get furniture and paint to decorate their floors. Housing maintenance will perform the renovations and painting, according to Slaughter.

“The main thing is to get people committed and put things in motion,” said Morris, in regards to getting the floors reserved, then finishing renovations in time for move-in day.

The organizations can reserve their floors every semester by having the required amount of committed members, and by filling out an intent form to show that they want to return, according to Slaughter.

The new organization floors will, however; cause those students that were staying in the rooms previously to move to make room for the organizations. Slaughter emphasized that they are not being left with a room that they may not want.

“The students displaced will have priority room selection before others,” said Slaughter, due to them being moved.

Currently, eight organizations in total utilize floors at Callahan Hall and Slaughter said he hopes more will take advantage of the opportunity in the future.