University releases Greek housing application with former KA house, 1047 up for grabs

Feb. 12, 2020, 11:08 p.m.

Two campus residences — located at 664 Lomita Drive and 1047 Campus Drive — will be open for application by Greek organizations seeking housing for the 2020-21 school year, Stanford Fraternity and Sorority Life (FSL) announced in a letter sent to Greek leaders on Monday. 

1047 Campus Drive, which is currently occupied jointly by Sigma Phi Epsilon (SigEp) and Sigma Psi Zeta (SYZ), will be available for a three-year contract beginning next year, according to the letter. 664 Lomita, which up until this year was occupied by Kappa Alpha (KA), will be available for a one-year contract.

The term limits “are related to the implementation timeline for aligning our Greek housing practices with the ResX vision,” wrote Student Affairs spokesperson Pat Harris in an email to The Daily.

The details of the “vision” have yet to be determined, Harris added. 

The University has not yet determined how it will allocate 550 Lasuen Mall, the former Sigma Chi house. Currently, the Alpha Omega House Corporation — a group of Sigma Chi alumni who lease the property from the University — and Stanford have sued each other for rights to the property, and litigation is ongoing. The trial for Stanford’s case began Tuesday; if the University wins the suit, it will gain possession of the house. It is unclear whether Stanford would move to allocate the house to a Greek organization in the next academic year. 

Stanford currently houses five fraternities and one sorority on the Row, and three sororities in the Cowell Cluster. Vice Provost for Student Affairs Susie Brubaker-Cole stated last February that she intends to eventually have 10 Greek houses at Stanford. Though current plans would raise the count to nine, Harris wrote that the University “remains committed” to 10 houses. 

Interested organizations will have to submit an interest form for general housing by Friday and a completed application by Feb. 21. A selection committee will rank the chapters and send its recommendations to Provost Persis Drell, who will make the final decisions by Week 9. The highest ranked chapter will get to pick which house it wants.

To apply, a chapter must respond to a series of essay questions aimed at assessing the chapter’s “values and culture,” according to the letter sent on Monday. Each applicant chapter must also present before a five-member panel consisting of representatives from Residential & Dining Enterprises and Residential Education, a Stanford Greek alum from a housed chapter and “professional staff from campus stakeholders with direct engagement with the Greek community,” according to the letter. The panelists have not yet been selected but will be chosen before the application deadline.

The selection panel will rank chapters on a set of criteria, including their ability to “articulate collective values” and “demonstrate a culture of collective responsibility,” as well as their “sustained positive contributions to Stanford above and beyond social engagement” and “commitment to equity and inclusion.” It will also consider their Standards of Excellence (SOE) rankings, which are provided to Greek organizations annually through an evaluation system established in 2015. The SOE system, however, is pending review by a steering committee within FSL. 

A chapter may apply jointly with another chapter, as is the current situation in 1047. R&DE requires that all housed Greek organizations fill their houses, either with their members or through a pre-assign program. SYZ, a roughly 40-person organization, uses a pre-assign program to fill its half of the house. SigEp will apply to be housed again next year; it is still unclear whether SYZ will.

Alpha Epsilon Pi and Lambda Phi Epsilon are among the organizations planning to apply, the organizations’ presidents said. Others did not respond to multiple requests for comment; Delta Kappa Epsilon and Chi Omega declined to indicate whether they were applying. Kappa Kappa Gamma declined an interview request as well, although its president noted there were “a number of other groups also applying” for housing. 

Contact Julia Ingram at jmingram ‘at’ stanford.edu.

Julia Ingram ’21 was The Daily's Volume 256 editor-in-chief. She is a New York City native majoring in English literature and working toward a career in news reporting. Contact her at jingram ‘at’ stanforddaily.com.

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