University Greek life has a large presence during the fall and spring semesters, but during the summers, independents rule the campus.Because of the small number of Greeks returning for summer sessions, all sorority houses and some fraternity houses are closed during the summer months.”It’s more of an individual choice,” said Angela Guillory, director of Greek Life. “Every Greek house is owned by a house corporation, a group of elected leaders of the organization’s alumni. They are charged with the leadership of a particular fraternity or sorority.”Guillory said both major and minor repairs are made to the houses during the summer while no one lives in them. This can include structural repairs, new carpets, plumbing, painting and new furniture.”From a cost perspective, it’s not lucrative to have the power on for the number of students here for summer school,” Guillory said. “Sorority houses sleep 55 to 60 girls, and you’ll never have that many students in summer school. [The Greek organizations] are not saving money by closing the house in the summer, they are making a choice not to lose money.”Cathy Stephens, House Corporation president of Kappa Delta, said this summer is the only chance the sorority has to repair its bathrooms and the damage done by Gustav, as well as reseal and paint the house.She said the KD house will be resealed because of minor damage caused by water blown from the University lakes during Gustav that seeped through the stucco walls of the house. Overall, Stephens said the house fared well during the storm.Guillory said it is a common trend across the nation to close sorority houses and keep some fraternity houses open during the summer and added some fraternity houses can stay open for the summer because the fraternity houses are staffed differently than the sorority houses. For example, the sorority houses have a kitchen staff serving three meals a day, and some fraternity houses do not have that staff.Paul Favaloro, Office of Facility Resources director, said Facility Services only does repairs for the Greek houses upon requests from them.”If they need us, they’ll call us,” Favaloro said. “Other than that, they typically contact maintenance repairs themselves.”Favaloro said Facility Services maintains the public areas around the houses and some of the Greek lawns.The house corporation of each Greek organization is in charge of scheduling the summer repairs.”We run the house, and the chapter rents it from us,” Stephens said. “We are all KD’s. We’re all older women who go back and help out. We do this just as volunteers. We take care of anything to do with the house.”Stephens said the cost of these repairs varies from year to year because some repairs are more expensive than others.”It’s a large task to keep these houses running,” Stephens said. “You can’t let these houses go for years at a time because the upkeep would be terrible.” Some Greek members take summer classes and have to find a place to live for the summer. Melissa Gandolfi, Kappa Delta president, said she subleased a room in someone’s house last summer when the KD house was closed. She said sublets are easy for Greek students to find, and many people post availabilities in the house before spring semester ends and the summer sessions begin.—-Contact Mary Walker Baus at [email protected]