When Virginia Tech students think of Oak Lane, many link the housing community on campus with special housing provided solely for fraternities and sororities. However, at the beginning of this school year, three of the houses in Oak Lane were no longer inhabited by a fraternity or sorority, and instead are full of non-Greek affiliated students.
Currently, all 12 sororities under the governing Pan-Hellenic Council have housing in Oak Lane and only three fraternities of the 33 under the Intrafraternity Council have housing in Oak Lane. Pi Kappa Alpha, Pi Kappa Phi and Sigma Chi are the three remaining fraternities in the Oak Lane community.
Ed Spencer, associate vice president for student affairs, said three of the houses on Oak Lane are currently used by subgroups of students.
“We lost two fraternities at the end of last year — one due to low membership and the other because of disciplinary issues,” he said.
Sigma Pi, Pi Lambda Phi and Alpha Sigma Phi were three fraternities that moved off campus in the past year and a half. Sigma Pi was the first of the three fraternities to leave Oak Lane.
“We were allowed to terminate our lease with the university early because we spoke directly with Ed Spencer. We terminated our lease ending with the spring semester of 2005. We left because the cost of living there was killing our fraternity — we were unable to fill the entire house and the university bills were about 95 percent of our dues,” said TJ Segnere, senior mechanical engineer and a brother of Sigma Pi.
Sengere said the decision of leaving Oak Lane was made so that the fraternity could function under better conditions with finances, and also to avoid the cost of the “great room,” which costs roughly $5,500 a semester.
“Another reason was that the university made people who paid to have a single room also buy the second meal plan which was not given to us to use, so this was an extra couple of hundred dollars individuals had to pay to have a single room,” Sengere said.
Sterling Barnett, senior finance major and president of Alpha Sigma Phi, said his fraternity lost interest in Oak Lane.
“We moved out of Oak Lane because we have a second house in Christiansburg that our original history and tradition are from,” Barnett said. “We felt this was more important than having two houses and wanted to move back out to where we started.”
Aja Ofte-Limb, sophomore international studies major, said she benefits from living in Oak Lane.
“I got lucky when my roommate and I requested to live with each other; she's in the Women's Leadership program and I get to enjoy all the benefits of Oak Lane. I like it a lot because it's so quiet and scenic, and I have a lot more space than I did in East AJ,” Ofte-Limb said.
Spencer encourages organizations and subgroups to apply for housing on Oak Lane. Each house holds up to 31 residents, and there is a bathroom connecting two double rooms. Houses on Oak Lane cost an additional $5,500 per organization, and would amount to an additional $177 per person for each semester.
Spencer said student organizations and subgroups would have priority over individual students interested in Oak Lane housing for the 2006-2007 school year.
“Applications are being accepted for student organizations or subgroups of organizations that want to move in together,” he said.
Applications are due Nov. 16 and are available online.
Ofte-Limb said she would live in Oak Lane again if it weren’t for her plans to live off campus for the 2006-2007 school year.
Sengere said that Sigma Pi member would possibly reconsider housing on Oak Lane if the costs were reduced or if the university would give them a pardon for the rooms they did not fill.
|
|
|
