The Delta Zeta sorority house, located on Fraternity Circle, is owned by housing core and is home to many Delta Zeta sisters. The women live four per room and enjoy amenities such as a dining hall and a chef. Top: The Alpha Phi sorority house, located on

Credit: Ron Soltys

Not having to purchase a parking permit, having lunch and dinner cooked for her five days a week, and living with 29 of her closest friends are only a few reasons why Delta Zeta member Megan Grote enjoys living in her sorority house.

The Delta Zeta house was previously the yellow house on University Drive, which is now the Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity house.

In the late 1980s, membership was low and a housing core told Delta Zeta it would build the women a new house if they built up membership.

The current Delta Zeta house opened in the early 1990s, and the women have lived there ever since.

Currently, 30 sorority women live at the Delta Zeta house.

Comfort of being off campus

Megan Grote, president of Delta Zeta and a senior public relations major, has lived at the house for three and a half years.

“I went straight from the dorms to the house,” she said. “I wanted that home feeling, and here has been a lot more comfortable.”

She said all the women in the house know each other really well, and living in the residence halls was a completely different experience.

“These are aspects you wouldn’t get from a regular college house or living in the dorms,” Grote said. “Friendships in high school and in college are totally different. They are much more rewarding and close-knit than in high school.”

Vanessa Bellitto, Alpha Phi vice president and a junior fashion merchandising major, likes the community aspect of living in a sorority house because it is how she got to know all of the chapters in her sorority.

“I’ve met so many people and girls I wouldn’t necessarily be friends with otherwise,” Bellitto said.

Grote said the close relationships that are made last longer than the countable days spent at Kent State.

Also, it is a potential stepping-stone for living on your own.

“You understand the importance of independence, but bills still have to be paid,” Grote said.

Bellitto said she sees a couple differences living in a home as opposed to residence halls.

“You’re cooking for yourself, cleaning an entire apartment and living with multiple roommates,” she said.

Also, sorority houses have house moms.

“She’s basically here for our protection,” Bellitto said. For Alpha Phi, the house mom also makes sure the women are enforcing house rules, such as no alcohol consumption in the house.

Also, Delta Zeta sorority house residents sign policy statements with the university.

Setup of sorority houses

Structure of the houses tends to differ from house to house.

In the Delta Zeta house, there are eight bedrooms with four girls sleeping in each room. In the Alpha Phi house, however, there are separate apartments. Four women live in an apartment equipped with a kitchen, bathroom and common area, with two women to each bedroom.

Other amenities in sorority houses are chapter rooms for meeting, common rooms to gather and composites that display the photos of the women from every chapter.

Both Alpha Phi and Delta Zeta have in-house chefs who prepare lunch and dinner during the week for the women.

For Grote, living in the Delta Zeta house gave her a better chance to become active in a leadership role early on. She looked up to the older women with leadership positions, and she now watches new young women do the same.

“There’s always new girls,” Grote said. “It’s exciting to see a new, shy member get really connected and involved. It’s rewarding to watch.”

For Bellitto, living in a community of other sorority houses is beneficial. The women tend to borrow things from one another, and it is nice that the houses are in walking distance from one another, she said.

Grote credits her enjoyment of being a Delta Zeta member to living in the house.

“I don’t think my college experience would have been the same if I didn’t live in this house or wasn’t a DZ,” Grote said.

Contact news correspondent Tracy Tucholski at [email protected].