FIJI has 22 members now, but expects the number to go as high as 90 when the house opens. Forty will live in the house, and the rest will be in and out for scheduled events and just to hang out. The same thing should happen in the other four houses, Telles-Irvin said. Sorority houses aren't in the works, since national sorority organizations rarely approve new houses these days, but FIU is considering including a sorority hall in its future expansion of the dorm system, Telles-Irvin said. Sororities generally insist on more control by alumni within the community than fraternities do.
Fraternity houses can be high-risk ventures.
They work well only when they are designed to mix good times with peer pressure to make good grades, develop leadership and social skills, contribute to the community and be good citizens, said Jon Williamson, executive vice president of the North-American Interfraternity Conference. Amid the mayhem, liability insurance rates for houses soared while national fraternity membership plummeted 25 percent or more in a decade. Schools that have cleaned up derelict fraternity rows have banned alcohol in houses, insisted that chapters renovate trashed houses, and installed directors who must report to administrators as well as members, Williamson said. Telles-Irvin insists that FIU will follow those reform principles. The reform movement is what persuaded Landon, who joined FIJI when he was a Georgia Tech student, to make his gift, he said.