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Friday,
January 30, 2004
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Frats
try to avoid fines
The
$2,120 charged to fraternities for each empty bed in their
houses has caused some frats to renegotiate their housing
contracts with the university.
By
Kristy Cubstead
Phi
Gamma Delta owes $20,000 to the university for not being
able to fill their fraternity house and President Chris
Duty says they will owe even more after this semester.
For every unfilled bed in a house, fraternities have to
pay $2,120. Each fraternity’s contract states the
minimum number of beds they must fill, said Tiffany Abbott,
director of fraternity and sorority affairs.
To avoid financial burdens similar to FIGI’s, university
officials say they are renegotiating some fraternities’
housing contracts.
This is the first year fraternities weren’t allowed
to have second-semester freshmen living in their houses,
and consequently, it has been more difficult for some
fraternities to meet the minimum capacity, Abbott said.
While freshmen are not allowed to live in fraternity houses
located in Worth Hills, they are allowed to live in the
Pi Kappa Phi and Sigma Phi Epsilon wings in Milton Daniel
Hall.
Mike Russel, associate dean of Campus Life, said he renegotiated
some fraternities’ contracts this year to have less
people living in their houses, because he knew it would
be difficult for fraternities to meet the minimum requirements
of previous contracts.
Before last fall, each fraternity had to have at least
25 members living in their houses, but now some are allowed
to have less, Russel said. He would not say which fraternities
renegotiated their contracts, or to what numbers.
Of all the beds in the five fraternity and sorority buildings
in Worth Hills, 180 are open, said Roger Fisher, director
of residential services. Of those, Russel said he does
not know how many of those are allowed to be open.
FIJI isn’t the only fraternity with open beds.
Last semester, Delta Tau Delta was fined about $6,300
and might have to pay more this semester, said house manager
Jared Bradley.
Bradley said the Delts’ new contract requires 21
people to live in their house, but there are only 17 or
18 members living there. Similarly, the FIGI contract
was renegotiated to include 21 people, but there are only
17 members living there, Duty said.
Delt President Miles Freeman said the fraternity could
have easily filled its house this semester if freshmen
would have been allowed to move in. He said he has encouraged
all Delts to move back into their house, and some have
broken apartment leases to do so.
Abbott said meeting capacity is a problem that all fraternities
will have to deal with at some point. But, she said it’s
at a particular high because fraternities are still adjusting
to not being able to fill their rooms with freshmen.
Sig Ep President Matt Freedman said their wing is completely
full this semester.
Pi Kap President Charlie Stephan said, “We have no
problem filling our wing because freshmen are really eager
to move in.”
Freshmen were no longer allowed to live in fraternity
houses this year because walls in some rooms had been
damaged, Abbott said.
She said fraternities are beginning to have younger presidents
because only freshmen have been living in the houses.
She said she hopes older members will live in the houses
and will be encouraged to hold leadership positions instead.
The Kappa Sigma and Phi Delta Theta house managers and
presidents said they did not know if they had changed
their contracts or what they might have been changed to.
Eric Johnson, the Lambda Chi Alpha house manager, declined
to comment on the new number of members needed to fill
their house.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Sigma Chi representatives could
not be reached for comment. |
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