During the summer, sorority and fraternity members are not the only students who fill the Greek houses that line Hilgard, Landfair and Gayley avenues ““ the summer is the only time other Bruins are invited to rent out space in the mansions.
“Traditionally it’s the frats that take in summer boarders because they’re open all year round,” said Greek adviser Troy Bartels. “It’s a general rule across the country that the sororities are closed during the summer.”
Though sororities at UCLA have in the past opened to non-Greeks over the summer, only one house will accept boarders this year.
For the first time, Alpha Epsilon Phi is staying open for female tenants. This is the first year the chapter has offered a summer living option, said Kelly Green Koffman, House Corp for Alpha Epsilon Phi. Koffman said most of her renters are students from other colleges who are doing internships in the Los Angeles area.
The other sororities are closed this year from the end of finals week to the beginning of September, but the house mother stays in the house over the summer. House mothers are in charge of watching over the sorority during the school year, sort of like a landlord, Bartels said.
It is common for fraternities, on the other hand, to rent out their rooms over the summer. It is primarily up to each individual house to decide if it will rent out and who will be able to stay there, Bartels said.
Many of the boarders in his house are fraternity brothers and sorority members, said Brett Long, the president of Pi Kappa Alpha.
Long said the fraternity gets “plenty of requests” for rooms, and many frats deal with renting by allowing members to act on their own in securing boarders.
Fraternities are cheaper to rent because students pay for only the room, but Koffman said the sorority will have food provided three times a day during weekdays as well as cleaning services and security.
“For girls who are coming out of town, their parents feel more comfortable having them stay in a sorority,” Koffman said.
Long said the houses have a laid-back atmosphere that sometimes feels quite different from during the school term.
“It’s a lot more low-key over the summer, because house budgets don’t finance parties, and most people who stay the summer are either going to school or working,” Long said. “Basically the building turns into an apartment complex.”