The NMSU Greek community’s move to Cervantes Village is official.
The month of October is here and the fall semester is in full swing for NMSU students. This means the New Mexico State Greek community has now been living in Cervantes Village for two months and is getting settled in for a new era on campus.
The Greek community lived in the original Greek Complex since the 1965 school year and saw many different fraternities and sororities move in and out over the course of its 52 years in existence.
The buildings were finally condemned and deemed unlivable during the 2016 school year, forcing all of the current fraternities living in the Greek Complex to move out to their new homes in Cervantes Village.
Over 150 Greek students are now living in over 20 Cervantes Village apartments, and have claimed four lodge spaces as well.
According to housing director Gregory Block, the move has gone well and all the Greeks and their presidents have been very cooperative with the new change.
“I think all and all the membership of those chapters did a really good job of transitioning, so I think it’s going pretty well. Sure there have been some bumps, but it could have been much worse, and I think that really is a testament to those young men that they were able to transition so well,” Block said.
The move transitioned the Sigma Chi, Pi Kappa Alpha, Kappa Sigma, and Lambda Chi Alpha fraternities to Cervantes, where they now have some amenities they did not have at the old Greek Complex.
Cervantes Village, which was originally used mainly for international students and family housing, now offers a community volleyball court, a grass common area for pets and outside activities, and a kitchen and living room for the Greek students now living there.
“It’s nice to have all these amenities like the personal kitchen and living room, and I really like the outside area with the grass benches and volleyball court. It really gives much more of a Greek community vibe, which is something that I feel the Greek community was missing while living in the old Greek Complex,” said junior Damien Banks, a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity.
While there are still some fraternities that are living in off-campus houses, the majority of fraternities now live in Cervantes Village, and have begun a new era where rather than living next to each other in individual houses, they are living amongst each other in apartments that are randomly placed throughout Cervantes Village.
“Being in Greek life, this is something I’ve never seen before. Some fraternities get along and hang out, but it’s not always a common thing, but now it’s really common to see two fraternities playing volleyball with each other almost at any given point. I feel like this has most definitely helped with fraternity relations and it has made things a lot better,” Banks said.
There is no real timetable for how long the Greek community will be living in Cervantes Village, however, the overall goal of housing administrators is for Greek life to soon take over all of Cervantes Village.
“There’s more space down here, there’s more beds to put people in, so we can have more and more Greeks eventually maybe even take over the whole area. I think that was the original plan when the move was made,” said David Laird, head of South Campus housing.
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