The Mississippi State University Department of Housing and Residence Life and the Office of Greek Life have partnered to allow Hathorn Hall to become a primarily Greek residence hall for the 2010-2011 academic year.
Ann Bailey, director of housing and residence life, said the Greeks living in Hathorn Hall next year will be grouped together based on Greek affiliation, but all in the residence hall will participate in activities together.
“Each sorority or fraternity will be grouped together as much as possible, but of course fraternities will be on the male hallways and the sororities will be on the female hallways,” Bailey said.
She said she is working with Office of Greek Life to organize a program that focuses on leadership skills for the men and women living in the hall.
“We are in the process of working with Greek life office to create a leadership program for students living in the Greek residence hall,” Bailey said.
Eddie Keith, director of the Colvard Student Union, said the leadership program will involve mostly sophomore sorority women. He said he thinks having a residence hall for Greeks will be a good experience for residents.
“They have been planning to have a leadership program and learning environment for the Greeks on campus,” Keith said. “It will mainly be sophomore women and they will have programs and do things together.”
He said the goal is for multiple different organizations to join together and participate.
“I think it would be great if all the sororities join together and participate in leadership opportunities together,” Keith said.
He said the last time MSU had a primarily Greek residence hall was before the houses were built on Fraternity and Sorority Rows.
“Sororities use to have their own floors in residence halls before the houses were built, and now the sorority houses are over capacity and there are women that want to live together and there is not enough room,” Keith said.
He said the Department of Housing and Residence Life will try to accommodate as many people as possible who want to live in the Greek residence hall, but with the enrollment increasing and freshmen housing being limited, the space in Hathorn will be limited.
“We only have a certain amount of room and we will try to accommodate as many people as we can,” Keith said.
Morgan Fuller, a sophomore animal and dairy science major and a member of Pi Beta Phi Fraternity, said it would help people in all sororities to become friends instead of separating each sorority.
“I think its a good idea because all the sororities will get to know each other in a more intimate setting,” she said.
Bailey said students interested in living in the Greek residence hall should contact their Greek organization president and submit an online application for on campus housing.
For more information, visit greeks.msstate.edu.