N.C. State Greeks will have on-campus community

N.C. State University is giving fraternities and sororities a chance to build and own houses in an on-campus, all-Greek community.

Construction is under way for N.C. State’s Greek Village, where fraternity and sorority members can live in houses on lots leased from the university.

John Mountz, director of Greek life at N.C. State, said the village will replace outdated housing while allowing groups to own houses on campus.

A new community is needed because many Greek organizations now lease on-campus houses that were built in the 1960s, Mountz said.

“They weren’t really configured with what our students need today,” he said. “We weren’t going to solve the problems through renovations.”

The Village, which will be located between N.C. State’s original campus and its Centennial Campus, includes a Greek community center. It is expected to cost the university about $110 million. The Greek community is expected to contribute up to $80 million, Mountz said.

For fraternities and sororities with fewer than 25 members, N.C. State is building townhouses and an apartment complex close to the houses.

The Village has been in the works since 2001 and is expected to be completed by 2020. The university has nearly completed lot construction for the first of five phases of building.

In the next eight to 10 months, N.C. State’s chapter of Sigma Nu will start building the first house in the Village.

Members of Sigma Nu are currently housed in several off-campus houses, but the move will allow members to live in the same building, said Michael Kennedy, Sigma Nu treasurer.

“It will definitely make the sense of brotherhood stronger,” he said.

He said fraternity alumni are providing a large portion of the funding for their new house.

While individual groups are covering their own construction costs, N.C. State is paying for utilities and the community’s infrastructure.

Mountz said this investment will benefit the school in the long run by creating new housing and attracting prospective students.

Jeff Horan, Sigma Phi Epsilon president, said the new construction should help attract members to the Greek system, which he said has seen more groups but fewer members recently.

Winston Crisp, assistant vice chancellor for student affairs at UNC, said a similar plan would be impractical at UNC because the current off-campus Greek housing system works well. There is also a lack of land on campus to build such a community.

“I think campuses do things in ways that makes sense for their own situations,” Crisp said.

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