For those of you involved in Greek Life (fraternities and sororities) you have probably heard from various sources and people, including some universities (like Johns Hopkins) that the main reason there is no Greek housing is because of a Baltimore County zoning law that prohibits more than 5 unrelated people from living in a house together.
After painstaking amounts of research including the Maryland State Code, the County ordinances, the university policies, I have concluded, and snopes.com has also drawn the same conclusion- the brothel law does NOT exist, thus there is no prohibition on Greek housing. If someone can find the law in print, please let me know…because I couldn’t find it.
So the next question is obviously why there is no greek housing at UMBC…this is a complicated question. In order to have Greek housing, the university must have land to utilize, and assume a greater liability. I think the biggest thing for Greek housing is the liability concern, as it would be extremely expensive for the university. However, this is not to say that there is no plan for Greek residences in the near future. One of the plans in the works is the creation of specific residence halls for different groups, like we have in Harbor with the Living Learning and Performing Arts floors and in Susquehanna with the Honors Floor. The UMBC plan is to do something similar for athletes, Greeks, and other groups.
Well, thats all for now.
The first men’s basketball home game will be this Saturday at 8 o’clock against St. Peter’s.
It’s free, just bring your UMBC id.
I have no idea how the team looks this year, but the games are always fun. There’s usually tons of give aways, t-shirts and stuff, and there will probably be something cool at half time since it’s the opener.
It’s a good time, and you get out with plenty of time to go party or whatever you’re doing after the game.
Also, the women’s game opener is this Friday at 6:45 against George Washington. And since they won the AEC conference last season, they’ll be raising the banner at the beginning of the game. Sweet!
The UMBC Men’s Basketball Team will be conducting their annual Black and Gold Intra-Squad Scrimmage on Wednesday night at 7:30pm in the RAC. Come and get your first look at the 2007-2008 UMBC Retrievers.
Here are the regular season home games though:
- Nov. 10 vs St. Peter’s
- Nov. 24 vs George Washington
- Nov. 29 vs Morgan St.
- Dec. 8 vs Goucher
- Dec. 22 vs Hampton
- Jan. 9 vs Vermont (during winter break)
- Jan. 12 vs Maine (during winter break)
- Jan 16. vs Hartford (during winter break)
- Jan. 30 vs Albany
- Feb. 6 vs Stony Brook
- Feb 9 vs Binghampton
- Feb 17. vs Boston U.
- Feb. 23 vs New Hampshire
They’re usually a real good time - definitely the sporting event that the most people go to. Get a few friends together and check out a few games, especially the first home game… lots of people will go to that first one.
To those reading this today, Sunday, get your friends, and go check out the women’s volleyball game today at 4 in the RAC.
- It’s free.
- The volleyball team is doing really well this season (19-6).
- Yeah, I know you have homework to do. Everyone has homework to do. Be honest with yourself though - you’re not going to start until 7 or 8 anyway. So get out and enjoy the day while you’d be procrastinating anyway!
- The games are exciting.
- You know you check them out around campus, why not do it legitimately while supporting their athletic program.
Everybody knows that not a lot of people go to the sports events here on campus. To be honest, the only sporting events I’ve ever really gone to are a girls soccer game or two, half of one men’s lacrosse game, and a bunch of men’s basketball games. When people actually go to those basketball games, whew, those were some good times. Everybody kind of left feeling like there was a little bit more school spirit than they’d felt coming even if we lost because we were all together.
I can understand why students don’t go watch our teams that aren’t doing that well. But here’s what I haven’t understood since getting here. How is that we have a team leading the standings, and no one is going to watch? Furthermore, how is that we have a team leading the standings, comprising of the girls pretty much all guys physically turn to check out in public, playing a really exciting sport, and few people are going to watch?. I’d never actually stopped to watch a volleyball game until about two weeks ago. Damn! It’s fast paced, there’s lots of scoring, it’s pretty easy to keep track of what’s going on… I just don’t understand why this isn’t huge. It has all the components to attract a large male crowd, for all the reasons listed above, but honestly, girls would enjoy it too, I’m sure.
Why not get a bunch of your friends together, or your hall, and catch a game before the season is over… honestly. It’ll be a good time and it’s good for this school that so many people complain about. “Be the change you want to see,” right? Exactly.
