Several fraternities have moved into different houses on Eagle Row this semester, and Sigma Delta Tau (SDT) sorority is returning after a semester-long hiatus.
Greek Housing Changes
Starting this fall, Kappa Sigma fraternity is residing at the former Phi Delta Theta house along with several non-member residents.
Phi Delt formerly occupied the house but has been suspended from campus for four years due to hazing violations.
Chi Phi fraternity, which returned to Emory last year after a four-year hiatus, is occupying the former Kappa Sig house.
And Beta Theta Pi fraternity will continue living in its same house, despite an initial University decision to move them into the Kappa Sig house.
The University originally planned to move Beta because the fraternity failed to fill its current house to 90 percent capacity, said Megan Janasiewicz, the director of the Office of Sorority and Fraternity Life.
A 2012 amendment to the Phoenix Plan, which guarantees some fraternities long-term housing as part of an agreement with the University, requires fraternities to fill their houses to 90 percent to avoid excessive charges, or they are reassigned to another facility, said Jeff Tate, the assistant director of operations for sorority and fraternity housing.
College senior and Beta President Niko Franchilli said he believes the fraternity was at 90 percent the entire time and that the fraternity was blindsided by the decision.
He described the situation as a "miscommunication" between the fraternity and University.
Franchilli said many Beta parents and students continuously emailed Greek Life and Campus Life officials after finding about the initial change to express their disappointment.
Jansiewicz has a different perspective on the situation.
"We communicated expectations to [Franchilli] as the chapter rep," Janasiewicz said. "They weren't able to meet the said requirements. Once we took action, then they were able to meet the said requirements pretty quickly afterwards."
Janasiewicz said organizations that don't fill the house to 100 percent must pay for the vacancies in the leftover rooms. The initial decision to move Beta, she added, was to "not put a financial burden on them."
Tate wrote that the number of residents in a house can fluctuate throughout the length of the summer due to students transferring, withdrawing or canceling housing. This may have led to some of the confusion, he wrote.
The situation is now resolved, and Franchilli said he is "ecstatic" about remaining in the house.
As for Chi Phi, the University gave the fraternity a house on Eagle Row after recognizing that doing so would open up more bed space across Emory's campus. Chi Phi was able to fill the former Kappa Sig house to capacity, Janasiewicz said.
Chi Phi President and Goizueta Business School junior Panos Kanellakopoulos said that after noticing that a house on Eagle Row was available, members of the fraternity contacted several University officials to see if the potential existed for them to move into the house.
Now, he said, having a house on campus will allow the fraternity to have a "central location" to host meetings and events.
"We look forward to being able to do a bit of outreach in terms of the community," he said. "It's pretty cool."
Kappa Sig President and College senior Andres Rivero said the fraternity is also "really excited" about having a bigger house than their previous one.
"It'll make it easier to organize and host fraternity activities and events," he said.
SDT Returns
SDT also returned to campus this semester after becoming inactive in the spring due to a process known as revitalization.
All former SDT members have been placed on alumni status but can reapply to join again, said B-school junior Lindsay Baker, who worked closely with the SDT national organization during the summer to bring the sorority back to Emory.
The national SDT organization proceeded with the revitalization process because of low membership numbers.
Thirty-two female students have joined the sorority so far, she said.
While the sorority does not have a sorority lodge on Eagle Row, they will be able to use the lodge currently occupied by non-affiliated Greek students during fall and spring recruitment, Baker said.
The sorority returned to campus sooner than expected.
In the spring, Janasiewicz told the Wheel that the SDT national organization planned to return to Emory in October to recruit new upperclassmen.
But Baker said she and a group of other students decided they wanted to restart the sorority during the summer, at which point they started consulting with University officials on how to go about bringing the sorority back.
"We all rushed, and none of us had gotten into sororities," Baker said. "So we wanted to have that on-campus experience."
Students who have been members of other Greek organizations in the past are not permitted to join due to sorority national policies.
Janasiewicz said SDT will return to its former sorority lodge next year if they are able to fill up the space in the house. She said she looks forward to having the sorority back on campus.
"They already have a great group of women," she said. "They are doing really well; we're really excited."
– By Jordan Friedman
