Many people have been wondering whether Monadnock will be turning into Greek Life housing or not.
This plan is happening, and it’s happening in the fall of 2018.
“We’re trying to repurpose Monadnock for the purpose of providing a venue which the Greek community has needed and asking for [for] a long time. The building might be repurposed to serve their needs specifically so they can have a defined space to do what it is they do,” Kent Drake-Deese, associate dean of students and director of residential life, said. Drake-Deese noted the idea of making Monadnock into Greek Life housing has been in the air for “not very long, just halfway through the [2016] fall semester,” Drake-Deese said.
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There were many other options where this housing could have happened. The Greek community had to vote between Owls Nests, Pondside 2 and Monadnock. “As a community, the Greeks got together [and] weighed out the pros and cons and had good discussions and, as a community, by majority vote, Monadnock was the property that Greeks voted on,” Brandon Mathieu, coordinator of fraternity and sorority life and student leadership said.
When it comes down to figuring out how Monadnock is going to be set up, there is a group of people designated for this. “We have a task force that we created where all of our Greek letter organizations are represented by a student, as well as two chapter advisors. So, we have a sorority chapter advisor and a fraternity chapter advisor who are on the task force with the students and myself,” Mathieu said. He also said how this task force is going to walk through Monadnock and visualize how they can bring all the organizations in there and place them throughout the building, considering some chapters are bigger than others. Mathieu explained how this is going to give them a chance to have a place to call their own and be a community.
Mathieu stated how the task force and himself have only met once, so they don’t know who is going to live there or how much funding will be needed. “We haven’t got to that part yet because we are still in the really early beginning phases, so something regarding that will be in our next step,” Mathieu said.
Mathieu wants to have another meeting as soon as possible with Drake-Deese to reach their deadline they have in mind. “I’m hoping either right before or right after spring break to have a second meeting,” Mathieu said.
Greek Life students are eager for this new change. Phi Sigma Sigma’s Panhellenic Delegate Diana Coady said, “I think a lot of my sisters were excited at the prospect of getting on-campus Greek housing that would be a step up from our house right now. The house we have now [Phi Sigma Sigma house on campus] doesn’t even have laundry or a kitchen and is definitely in rough shape, so having the opportunity to get access to those amenities was promising.”
Adriana Sanchez can be contacted at asanchez@kscequinox.com
