<p>I rec’d the following questions and hope others can chime in with more info…</p>
<p>"Can anyone give some insight about housing for (non-honors) freshman girls who may or may not want to pledge?? </p>
<p>Would like to hear something about Harris and tut? Also about the whole room selection process? </p>
<p>Do’s and Don’ts?"</p>
<p>Thanks folks!!!</p>
<p>There’s also Somerville, Parham, and (co-ed) Burke. I live in honors housing so I can’t help much with logistics.</p>
<p>Tutwiler is right next to sorority row, and a lot of girls who plan to join sororities like to be there. Beginning next year, Martha Parham will be right at the other end of sorority row (the new end), so that’s a good location, too. Girls who wind up not pledging anywhere initially find it hurtful to live there the first weeks, but that becomes less of an issue rather quickly.</p>
<p>Rooms in the older Parham are just slightly larger than Tut. Both have group bathrooms and you’ll have a single roommate. Tutwiler opened around 1968 and I think Parham and Burke both opened in the early 1960s - both have been around for several generations now! If you’d rather be in the newer dorms that have suites and private bathrooms, you’ll have to go to the north end of campus and use the bus system to get to your sorority house.</p>
<p>I stayed in Harris Hall during freshman orientation a hundred years ago. The rooms are big, the closets are small. It’s a very old building, but I liked it. Can’t remember anything about the bathrooms. It usually fills up with upperclassmen.</p>
<p>A note about the group bathrooms - there are individual showers. You may very occasionally have to wait for a shower, and you might be brushing your teeth in a group, but you have privacy for everything else. And unlike a suite bathroom, you don’t have to clean it!!</p>
<p>My DD lived in Tut last year. She went through recruitment and pledged. She could have lived in suite style housing but chose to live in Tut because it was so close to sorority row. She knew she would be spending an incredible amount of time there and did not want to walk across campus continuously. Remember when you pledge your meal plan goes to a Greek 50 and you eat at the house Mon-Fri (lunch)…the sororities really encourage you to eat there and if you are having to walk across campus to do this it becomes more of a hassle. On top of that during Fall semester you will most likely have activities almost every night that require you to be at the house so living close is a good thing.
Tut is a traditional dorm set up that includes bunk beds, built in closets and vanity, 1 reg size desk and one smaller one. The girls get together and do fantastic decorating to make these look very homey and cute!!! DD and her roommate coordinated everything and her room looked like an advertisement for Pottery Barn! You can also use the cute Target and Belk dorm room combinations!
The bathrooms are community style. DD never had to wait for a shower. She really liked the fact that everyone seemed to make an effort to be social and friendly. She felt if she was in a situation where you could go in and just shut your bedroom door in a suite that this may not occur.
I would agree with Southlander in that a majority of girls who live in Tut do pledge and if you go through recruitment and choose not to pledge at first it might be a little uncomfortable.
My DD says not to live in Parham. I asked “why” and said just tell them not to…sorry :(.
Make sure you pay attention to when your room selection time is. In my DD’s case her roommate had an earlier time so she just used my DD’s proxy code and pulled her in. they had a room at the end of the hall near the stairs and felt since they were not near the common area it was quieter.
I think the most important thing we learned is that you need to REALLY pay attention to when you can sign up for move in times…especially if you are going through recruitment! These go fast and you REALLY want to give yourself enough time to get settled before Convocation. Stay on top of this…it usually happened late May early June…they will send you an email to your mybama with dates.</p>