Panhel chapters granted housing for first time

In July 1959, Duke’s Board of Trustees closed the Panhellenic meeting space on East Campus and promised it would work to develop facilities and quarters for sororities. Fifty-two years later, Duke has finally fulfilled that promise.

All nine Panhellenic Association chapters have been granted housing in the house model set to begin August 2012, said Joe Gonzalez, associate dean for residence life. This decision—the first in Duke’s history to grant houses for individual chapters—follows years of Panhel discussions, proposals for housing and an under-populated Panhel house on Central Campus.

The presidents of all nine Panhellenic sororities could not be reached for comment or declined to comment. Senior Jenny Ngo, president of Panhellenic, could not be reached after numerous attempts.

Administrators granted residential space to twenty student groups—including the nine Panhel chapters—as part of next year’s house model. The other eleven groups are Sigma Pi fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, Inter Greek Council, Asian Cultural Interest, Black Cultural Living, Latino Cultural Interest, Mundi, Alpha Kappa Psi fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega fraternity, Forum and Social Justice.

The cultural houses are sponsored by their student-group counterparts, Asian Student Alliance, Black Student Alliance and Mi Gente, respectively. Forum is a new student group that will operate under a general intellectual engagement theme. Mundi will be a house with multicultural and international theme, and Social Justice is a group sponsored by the Asian American Alliance.

Six student groups’ applications for housing were rejected by the Addition and Removal committee, which consists of administrators, students and faculty. Those groups were Line Monitors, Sword and Spear, Men’s Housing Initiative, Phi Beta Sigma fraternity, 360 and Program II. Those groups were not accepted for a variety of reasons, Gonzalez said.

“Sometimes [a decision was made on] the basis that the group was not viewed as one that was tied strongly enough to the privilege of having a house to be supported,” Gonzalez said. “We had to consider whether each group was ready for a house and would flourish with the opportunity.”

Although some students may believe that sororities have been denied chapter housing up to this point, this year was the first time in Duke’s history that individual houses applied for residential space.

Since the Panhellenic space in the Crowell Building on East Campus was closed in 1959, sororities have struggled to secure space of many types—including meeting, storage and residential.

Panhel has repeatedly attempted pushing for campus housing throughout the past few decades but was hindered by a lack of a unified demand, Nowicki said.

In 2010, former President of Alpha Delta Pi sorority Alyssa Dack, Trinity ’10, and Pi Beta Phi sorority member Casey Miller, Trinity ’10, crafted a proposal for housing, which led to the creation of a Panhellenic house on Central. The proposal was approved January 2010.

The house was not popular—24 women lived in the Central section in 2010-2011 and 12 women currently reside in the section, Gonzalez said at a Panhel house model meeting Sept. 5.

Clarybel Peguero, assistant dean of fraternity and sorority life, could not be reached for comment.

Panhel applied for nine houses with approximately 40 beds each in September. But not all chapters initially voted for individual chapter housing, The Chronicle previously reported.

“I was a little surprised [that Panhel applied for housing] because they had never shown unified interest in housing, but they did this time and that’s great,” Nowicki said.

Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that the Panhellenic space, which closed in 1959 was in Crowell Quadrangle. The space was actually located in the Crowell Building on East Campus and served as a large meeting facility for Panhellenic sororities.The Chronicle regrets the error.