joshua wilsher

Sororities

I am quite interested in Sororities - those female social, academic and philanthropic organisations found on many US campuses. Butler has nine houses with a variation of weird names ranging from The Almighty Aplha Chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho to The Gamma Chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta. From time to time I learn a little more about these places and feel that is only fair that I share the information with you. As I wrote in one of my very first blog entries, these stately-looking houses that align the main drag of campus (Hampton Drive) have long and honoured traditions. Infact, these traditions are considered so important that prospective members have to undertake a semester of studies about their chosen sorority and pass a test before being accepted as a sister.

There are a couple of things about sororities that interest me the most. While their male counterparts have wild parties in their fraternity houses, soriorities have 'no drinking' and 'no partying' rules, which has prompted me to nickname them sobrieties (yes, I know what you are thinking; how clever and witty of me). Now, while I generally object to the prohibition of alcohol, I think in this case it works well for the young lasses becasue it keeps their places looking really nice (as oppossed to the fraternities which often smell and look like the keg basement of a pub).

But what I learned the other day was of the sleeping arrangements at many of the campus' sororities. While fraternities gernerally have 2 or 3 guys crammed into a bedroom, the girls have only three bedrooms in total. These bedrooms are referred to as cold, neutral or hot, which describes the girls who sleep in them. Haha! No, just joking - the names refer to the rooms' temperature setting. Cold is exactly that, with windows kept open at all hours (or closed in the summer - but with the air-conditioning up). Hot is kept like a furnace and Neutral is, well, nuetral. So when you move in to the house, you have to declare what room you would like to reside in.

What's also cool about these bedrooms is that noise levels are kept under as tight control as their temperature. Girls are not permitted to bring anything into the room - not a clock, not a drink, not a towel - just themselves. One might ask how they wake up without a clock. Well let me tell you! There is a roster for each sister to take it in turns to be the person who gets up before everybody else in the morning and sit there with a list which details the time each girl would like to be awoken.

These bedroom rules are strictly enforced 24/7 which means that one can take a peaceful sleep in a darkened room, at a temperature of their choosing, anytime of the day. However, I think the watchman only does morning hours.

These large bedrooms are on the third floor. On the second floor are office-cum-dressing rooms which the girls share between 2 or 3. Second and third floors are off limits to males.

posted by Joshiesmoov @ 3:10 PM