From House Parent to Resident Assistant: Reevaluating the Role of the House Director

To some the idea of a House Parent may be a foreign one. Many colleges and universities require that greek letter houses with a certain number of members have an "In-House Advisor," known within most fraternities as the House Director. The duties of the House Director vary from chapter to chapter and from school to school, but often include managing the chapter employees, upkeep of the facility, coordination of the fire safety program, and oversight of the chapter's finances.

In many ways the House Director's role is redundant - it duplicates some duties of the House Manager, Treasurer and Risk Management Vice President. The House Director is the most appropriate choice to coordinate the upkeep and maintenance of the chapter facility, since he or she has more life experience, a semi-permanence in the position, and a better rapport with contractors due to his or her age.

For many chapters, particularly those in the South, the House Director has traditionally been a "House Parent." House Parents have historically been least 20 years older than the active membership, usually were not members of the national chapter, and were often members of the opposite sex. The idea of a middle- to advanced-aged outsider that oversees the chapter has its roots in the concept of in loco parentis, a latin phrase which means "in place of the parent." This dying concept in higher education holds that the college has the responsibility to assume traditional roles of the student's biological parents. Until the 1970s, colleges and universities asserted this power by rigidly enforcing sex-segregated student housing and applying strict rules on personal behavior. In the last quarter century it has faded away, as court rulings and student demand steered college to be more a trial adulthood than an advanced childhood.

There are substantial advantages to having a younger, more "in touch" person serving as the House Director. Active members can connect much better with someone who is only a few years removed from being an active member of the organization. Leadership by example goes a long way to keeping good behavior in the chapter house. A graduate student from the same school can serve as an educational mentor and adviser to active members. For the alumni member hired as the house director, there are much lower costs of attending graduate school, due to low housing costs, food, and perhaps a small stipend. Chapters should weight the benefits of paying for an older "house mom" or a younger "graduate house director."