Union works to create Greek housing clusters

Boston University Greek Life student leaders have gained ground in their efforts for recognized on-campus housing for fraternities and sororities, they said.

BU Student Union College of Arts and Sciences voting member Anant Shukla said he ‘got the ball rolling’ on the possibility of fraternity housing when he met with BU Student Activities and Operations Executive Director John Battaglino and fraternity presidents to discuss housing and Greek Life. Shukla said Battaglino requested a list of all the brothers who would want to return to campus, and said he would send it to housing administration.

Battaglino said he hoped cluster housing, which means certain floors in dormitories would be reserved for a fraternity or sorority, would be available by fall 2009, Shukla, a CAS junior said.

‘So the purpose there, at the meeting, was to put pressure on the administration saying that this is something that the Union wants and I’m willing to support,’ Shukla said. ‘But that didn’t happen.’

BU Panhellenic Council President Lauren Prince said although the administration has been pushing for the idea of Greek housing returning to campus, it was not able to offer the idea of cluster housing until now because of increased housing availability from the opening of Student Village Phase II.

‘They couldn’t shift things around enough to satisfy the incoming freshmen because none of the incoming freshmen get to pick their on-campus housing either, so they have a lot of people they’re looking at when making rooming selection,’ Prince said. ‘So they’re believing that now is the time to do this.’

‘It was a push by the administration to satisfy their desire to have students move back on campus,’ Prince, a College of Communication junior, said. ‘All I can say is that I haven’t heard of a single organization that doesn’t have an interest. But right now, it’s still kind of at a standstill.’

Cluster housing would allow sororities and fraternities to have a community-based living style while having the cost, convenience and security of on-campus housing at the same time, Prince said.

‘Different organizations can have recognized housing and have more of a community set amidst the dorms,’ she said. ‘People really like the idea of living together, especially with organizations. If best friends can get cluster housing together on campus, it would be a dream come true.’

BU Greek Life Program Coordinator Susanna Bartlett said even though there is not Greek housing for the 19 recognized Greek organizations on campus, she would be excited to see it happen.

‘I would love to see fraternity and sorority housing become an option,’ Bartlett said. ‘It would be fantastic to give our fraternities and sororities an opportunity to continue to grow and be a vibrant part of the BU community.’