Zeta Beta Tau (ZBT) fraternity will retain its house at 8 Eagle Row and Kappa Sigma (Kappa Sig) fraternity will retain its house on 20 Eagle Row for the 2014-2015 academic year if they maintain sufficient membership to fill their respective houses by Feb. 13, 2014, according to Jeff Tate, assistant director of operations for sorority and fraternity housing.
Depending on their membership numbers, Chi Phi fraternity may move to the Asbury House, a theme house on Peavine Creek Road, while Asian interest fraternity Xi Kappa may move from Asbury House to 13 Eagle Row, where Chi Phi currently resides.
ZBT – which received its official charter in fall 2008 after 10 years as a colony – first leased 8 Eagle Row after Chi Phi lost its charter in March 2009. Yet, Chi Phi, which returned to Emory last fall, still owns the house under the Phoenix Plan, which provides fraternities with long-term housing through signed agreements. Despite Chi Phi’s return to campus, when the issue came down to fraternity membership numbers and performance, the ResLife committee and director both favored ZBT remaining there if the chapter can successfully fill the house, according to Tate.
Meanwhile, Kappa Sig moved into 20 Eagle Row in fall 2012 following the four-year suspension of Phi Delta Theta fraternity due to hazing violations, according to an August 2013 Wheel article.
Through a year-to-year housing assignment process for fraternities without historical rights to a specific house, four students and five staff members involved in Residence Life and Housing discussed credentials of the chapters that applied for residence in each respective house, according to Tate. These credentials include a chapter’s ability to fill a particular house, as well as its accomplishments during the current academic year.
The students and staff then submitted their recommendations for the housing changes to Director of ResLife Operations Mary Romestant for final approval. While this recent decision remains tentative, official decision from ResLife will be determined after Feb. 13, 2014.
–By Lydia O’Neal
Correction 12/6/2013: This article was corrected to reflect the tentative nature of the housing changes.
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As a member of Chi Phi’s housing corporation (and Emory alumnus), I’d like to share a few clarifying points.
First, congratulations to Xi Kappa and ZBT. They have built successful fraternities and earned their place on campus, no easy task.
As of now, ResLife puts fraternities without historical rights to a house through this process. Chi Phi is subject to it temporarily because of our recently-returned-to-campus status. Once we have sufficient numbers, we will move back to # 8, which we own and in fact have a $400,000 surplus in our account.
The current assignments for next school year are tentative. All of these decisions will be revisited in the spring. The number one driver is the ability to fill a facility, because vacancies mean lost revenue, and potentially, financial deficits.
The second consideration is an application process in which each group highlights their accomplishments. While Chi Phi has had a great year, growing from 9 to 35 men, volunteering regularly, and contributing to campus through a variety of organizations, we did not turn in a very good application. This miss is ultimately the fault of our alumni housing corporation, on which I sit. So unfortunately, we (the alumni) let our chapter down.
Jeff Tate and ResLife have done a good job managing a difficult task. In years past, this process was antagonistic and difficult. Jeff and his team have been cordial and collaborative. The fact that *more* fraternities want to be at Emory, and Emory is trying to accommodate them, is good news for everyone. It is a credit, in particular to Dean Riordan, who consistently works with the fraternities to make Greek Life a vibrant part of this campus.
Sahil
Emory ’00