Sororities and fraternities are criticizing the Office of Student Life’s enforcement of a housing rule that they say will prevent people with disability accommodations from living in their on-campus townhouses.
Officials are now requiring that 95 percent of rooms in townhouses for Greek chapters are filled, even if GW had permitted members with Disability Support Services accommodations to live alone in a two-person room, according to an email sent Tuesday to Director of Student Involvement Meredith Bielaska by members of Kappa Delta, Chi Omega, Sigma Delta Tau, Alpha Epsilon Phi, Sigma Kappa and Kappa Alpha Theta. Sorority and fraternity members said the change in policy enforcement would discourage students with DSS accommodations from residing in their chapters’ houses because chapter leadership will likely be unable to accommodate their need for a single, and chapters will then will have to cover the price for leftover beds in townhouses, which sits at more than $6,000.
“The interpretation of the ‘DSS accommodation’ rule has changed since the last housing roster. FSL has had DSS singles not count against their 95% capacity goal until this sudden change,” the email reads.
University spokesperson Julia Metjian declined to comment on whether officials have changed their enforcement policies but said ensuring accessibility for the student body is a “top priority” for the University.
“The offices of Student Life and Campus Living and Residential Education work with each Chapter individually to help them meet the occupancy requirements and ensure it is a viable community for all members,” Metjian said in an email.
The six sororities wrote in the email that it is “well understood” that chapter leadership already struggles to fill FSL houses, and the policy enforcement will make it even harder for them to fill rooms in the spring given that many members opt to study abroad during second semester.
They wrote that it is “impossible” to secure leases for the spring semester within two weeks, given that the housing roster is due to GW in less than three weeks. They said in the email that there is “not enough time” for chapters to handle the policy enforcement case by case and that the anxiety is “widely felt” by student house managers who worry they won’t be able to fill houses without DSS members.
The members also state in the email that the University should put the enforcement in “clear writing” so it can then be shared with chapter members. They also requested in the email that officials hold off on enforcing the policy until next academic year so chapters aren’t forced to choose between allowing DSS members to live in the house and accumulating debt, which they said could endanger chapters’ existence on campus.
“Facing fines for empty spaces will lead to chapters not being able to function or exist on GW’s campus,” the email states.
Sophomore Sigma Kappa Housing Manager Erin Passarello said Assistant Director of Student Involvement Andrea Davis informed house managers of the change in enforcement during a meeting about two weeks ago, where she said each house could have two DSS singles while staying above 95 percent capacity. She said Davis told them this was the University’s decision, not FSL’s, and her FSL contacts felt “blindsided” by the policy. She said Davis asked that any students with concerns reach out to GW.
“She kind of told us if you have issues with it, we recommend you go to the upper levels because we don’t really have any pull over this,” Passarello said.
Passarello said Sigma Kappa is not affected by the new enforcement because many of their members typically want to live in the house. She said Sigma Kappa doesn’t have any singles, but she has heard from other house managers that they’re struggling to find people to fill the beds.
She said she’s heard from other house managers that students who have DSS accommodations for a single are going to move out of their respective houses, forcing them to fill an additional two beds instead of one.
“The issue with the DSS thing is that now the DSS people that do really want and need a single are gonna be moving out of the house,” Passarello said.
Junior Lucas Golluber, a member of Beta Theta Pi, said he has a DSS accommodation that allows him to live in the Beta townhouse with a single room and he is “adamant” about staying in his single next semester. He said he believes officials will resolve the issue because the University is “completely in the wrong,” and it’s unfair that they didn’t give the sorority chapters enough warning about the change in enforcement.
“This is discrimination, at its core,” Golluber said. “You can’t just bring it upon us all of a sudden, like ‘Oh, you can only have two [DSS] rooms, counting the housing managers.’”
Golluber said Beta, in addition to many sorority chapters on Townhouse Row, utilizes DSS accommodations to help them fill empty beds because 24 spots in a house is “a lot to fill up,” especially for smaller chapters like Beta. He said the number of Beta members has dropped in recent years, with their membership dropping from 90 active members during the 2023-24 academic year to 35 this year, adding that fraternity fall recruitment also declined this semester.
Golluber said Beta has struggled to fill the beds in their townhouse in recent years because there are eight members in his pledge class and juniors are not required to live in the house. He said members are only required to live in the house for one semester, and many sophomores have been granted living exceptions because their parents don’t want them to live in the townhouse.
“When you are a big fraternity or sorority, you have the people to do that,” Golluber said. “But when you’re not that, it’s impossible to fill the spaces.”
Metjian declined to comment on if the office will consider exemptions to chapters who don’t have enough members to fill the beds or if there is an appeals process for chapters that feel officials aren’t taking their circumstances with DSS accommodations into account.
