A former Massachusetts State Statute declaring sorority houses against the law is still the source of much confusion, according to BU students and sorority members.
One of the “blue laws” enacted in the early years of the Commonwealth’s existence, the rule was originally drafted to eliminate the existence of brothels. A residence with more than six unrelated women, was formerly considered a brothel and declared unlawful.
Though the “blue laws” were repealed in 1984, public awareness of their elimination is not well publicized. While Boston University does not officially recognize housing for Greek organizations, it does support the existence of the Greek system, according to the Office of Student Affairs.
Although the law has been repealed, some sorority members said they did not see the lack of housing in their Greek system as a negative aspect.
“One of the nice things about [not having a house] is that it gets members to interact with students outside of the sorority,” said Ashley Wilemon, a College of Communication sophomore and Rush Chairwoman for Tri Delta.
“Personally, I think it is better this way, but also if girls do want to live together off campus, there is nothing stopping them, and that is fair,” Wilemon said.
However, a number of sororities and fraternities keep “unofficial” houses at off-campus locations, which are funded by membership pledges and not funded or recognized by BU.
“It would be nice to be recognized on campus and get funding so we’d be able to have an official house to do the many great things we do as an organization,” said Ansley Dickens, a School of Education sophomore and Tri Delta member.
“It’s one of Silber’s negative notions about student conduct that causes us not to be very well-liked on campus,” Dickens said.
Despite the lack of official recognition, the university policy on fraternities and sororities does not prevent the different groups from gathering or organizing. It only limits the number of things they can do, since the members’ dues are the only source of funding such organizations receive.
According to Seth Rosenzwig, Greek Advisor in the Student Activities Office, the university’s current policy regarding the Greek system is the result of a movement in the 1960s to make fraternities and sororities official again, after having been completely removed from campus.
As a result, Rosenzwig said the system had to sacrifice campus housing in order to become officially recognized again.
Rosenzwig agreed that the confusion about the law and the University’s policy are probably due to the lack of sorority houses both on and off-campus.
“The thing is that most kids just see that there aren’t many sororities around, then they hear the myth about this brothel law, and consequently make a judgment based on that,” he said.