by Meg Bergstrom
On the weekends you can find 10 girls pursing their lips and gliding on their favorite Kylie Jenner Lip Kit in the bathroom. Elephant-like stomps echo through the house as girls run up and down the halls.
Typically, a gaggle of girls can be found sitting criss-cross on their bedroom floor curling each other’s hair. And even though the boulevard doesn’t start until noon, by 8 a.m. the bathroom is filled with the fog of hairspray.
For some this sounds like a nightmare, and for others like Anna Grace Godoy, it’s a dream come true.
“I think it makes you a better person because you’re living with people in a different sorority and they may not have the same values as you, so you get to learn from them,” Godoy, a member of Chi Omega, said.
Godoy has lived out this fantasy and loved every minute of sharing a house with 23 other girls, but this sorority house is very different from the rest.
3100 Daniel Ave. is the place 24 girls call home. Unlike most houses on the street, this house mixes girls from four sororities.
The Panhellenic House allows young women to create friendships outside of their own Greek organization, and fills the requirement of living on campus for two years.
“I’ve made a bunch of friends I wouldn’t have otherwise,” Godoy said.
Unlike the Residential Commons, the Panhellenic House runs on a first-come, first-serve basis for who chooses to live there. The occupants of the Panhellenic House all applied to live there rather than the Commons for their second year at SMU.
“It was the best choice I ever made for my sophomore year,” Chi Omega Myla Borden said.
During her six months of living in the Panhellenic House, Borden has met new friends and enjoyed living with only girls.
“If I was in Greek life, I would live in the Panhellenic House because it’s a fun way to be involved in Greek life and get to know people who aren’t in your sorority,” Caroline Parker said.
Although Parker does not regret not going through recruitment, she wishes she had the chance to live with all girls and get to know more people.
Living in the Panhellenic House allows girls to choose to branch out and live in a sorority house instead of a traditional room in the Commons. Meeting new young women isn’t the only benefit of living in the Panhellenic House — it also gives its occupants a quiet place for studying and relaxing.
“When you study it’s fun because the environment is so much better. It’s very homey,” Borden said.
Some of Borden’s favorite moments from sophomore year came from sitting around the dining room tables and talking to other house girls about their nights. Living in a home allows space to gather and spend quality time with other residents.
The large dining room with big tables gives the girls a space to sit and focus on schoolwork. Borden not only likes the space to study, but also seeing the other house girls studying is motivating to get to work herself.
“My favorite thing is definitely the living spaces and the kitchen,” Pi Beta Phi Julia Bristol said.
Although Bristol said it would be impossible to pinpoint just one of her favorite memories, she says there’s never a dull moment in the house. She attributes this to the different personalities in the house.
Unlike the dorms, the Panhellenic House has a kitchen that lets residents cook their own meals or blend up favorite smoothies. In doing so, residents can escape from the monotonous college routine and have a real home to live and relax in.
The location of the Panhellenic House among sorority row makes it easy for the young women to stay involved in their respective sororities.
“It’s convenient because it’s right next to the Chi Omega house,” Godoy said.
This allows residents to create bonds with their fellow residents, but also the girls living in their own sorority houses. The Panhellenic House residents have more chances to meet older women this way, as well as other benefits like the option to purchase a meal plan in their own sorority house.
“It is a super cool opportunity to be able to live with girls from all different sororities and to be close to the Chi O[mega] house so I can grow close with the older girls living in the house,” said Sophie Scott, who is looking forward to living in the Panhellenic House.
Godoy, Borden and Bristol all agreed that creating new friendships, having a bit more homey feel than a dorm and the convenient location are all just a few benefits of living in the Panhellenic House.
