Here are some questions and answers regarding the Sorority Village project, currently under construction on Morgan Hill on the west end of campus. The development plans to welcome its first residents this fall. Read more here.
What is the schedule for the remaining Sorority Village houses?
The Alpha Omicron Pi and Phi Mu chapter houses are on hold while new contractors are finalized. University Housing is accommodating women whose houses will not be ready as they had originally planned.
Houses for Chi Omega and Pi Beta Phi are scheduled for completion in spring or summer 2013.
The development’s final two houses—Zeta Tau Alpha and Delta Gamma—will begin building within the next sixty days.
What about safety and transportation?
The development will be fenced and will incorporate modern security features, including gated access, blue light emergency phones, and security cameras. Sorority women also will swipe their student IDs to enter their houses
The development will become part of the university’s “T” bus service routes. UT students ride free on all “T” routes with their UT ID.
A traffic signal will be installed at the village entrance on Neyland Drive in early August. Exterior landscaping will begin as the first houses are completed this fall. The bulk of the landscaping will be done when the development is completed.
What about parking?
The village will have dedicated Greek Sorority (GS) student parking. In order to qualify for a GS parking permit, an individual must be a sorority member and a resident of the village. A GS permit is valid only in the GS parking area at Sorority Village and in campus unreserved staff and commuter areas between 5:00 p.m. and 3:00 a.m.
Students who will begin the fall 2012 semester living in on-campus housing but who will later relocate to Sorority Village during the 2012-13 academic year will be allowed to purchase a GS permit. For the 2012-13 academic year only, GS permits will be honored in campus non-commuter parking areas in order to accommodate students in this situation.
Who owns the houses and the development?
UT owns the land at Sorority Village, and the sorority chapters will hold an equity interest in their houses. Just like the houses in Fraternity Park, the houses in Sorority Village hold a land lease agreement with the university. Because of this, UT is managing the contracts for the building projects.
How will the Panhellenic Building be used in the future?
The Panhellenic Building—the main meeting facility for fourteen of the campus’s nineteen sororities—will remain open and serve a function for sororities until the spring or summer of 2013.
Some of the University Center functions will be moved to the lower two floors of the Panhellenic Building during the construction of the new Student Union. UT’s ROTC program will move into the upper two floors of the Panhellenic Building during summer 2014.
The program is now housed in the Stokely Athletic Center. The university will renovate Panhellenic to prepare for the ROTC program, once the last of the sorority chapters move out next year.
The ROTC program will move to Hoskins Library after Stokely closes this fall. ROTC will then occupy Hoskins for twelve to eighteen months as renovations to the Panhellenic Building are made to establish the program’s permanent home.