As part of the Eagle Row Themed Housing program announced last month, members of the Emory Black Student Alliance (BSA) will live at 22 Eagle Row, students with interest in media and free expression will live at 14 Eagle Row next year and Zeta Beta Tau, which was slated to occupy 22 Eagle Row, will remain at 8 Eagle Row next year, according to Residence Life and Housing (ResLife) Director Scott Rausch.
Just after the Office of Student Conduct decided to suspend Chi Phi fraternity for three years as a result of the group’s violation of the University Anti-Hazing Policy, ResLife announced that student groups — regardless of Greek Life affiliation — could apply to live in the fraternity’s house at 22 Eagle Row.
The recent three-year suspension of Kappa Alpha (KA) fraternity, which Student Conduct also found guilty of violating the University’s Anti-Hazing Policy, and removal from its residence at 14 Eagle Row, allowed ResLife to choose a second Themed Housing applicant group to live in KA’s former house for the upcoming year.
A committee including students from the Student Government Association, all four Greek Councils and Residence Hall Association, ResLife members, one graduate student and one additional undergraduate student reviewed the nine applications based on each group’s goals, connection to its proposed theme and potential to serve the general community.
The Emory media house, which includes writers for the literary journal, The Pulse, writers from satirical magazine The Emory Spoke, members of the Media Council and other students interested in free expression, will focus on a theme of “Media, Literature and Arts Outreach” for its year in 14 Eagle Row, while the theme of BSA’s living space will simply be the group’s title.
As for adjustments to the houses, which traditionally host fraternities, the new occupants will decide whether to make their current men’s restrooms into gender neutral or gender specific bathrooms to accommodate for their generally “mixed-gender rosters,” Rausch said.
“What I really want is for the residents of the house to feel comfortable,” Rausch said. He added that each house’s resident adviser, which had not yet been chosen, will be a member of the resident group. In addition to an RA, each group will have a faculty adviser whose work on campus relates to the group’s theme.
College sophomore and Longstreet-Means Hall sophomore adviser Juliana Bonovich, who headed the Media, Literature and Arts Outreach theme application, said the house's 60-person roster included students pursuing a variety of majors and involved in a cappella groups, the literary magazine Lullwater Review, satirical magazine The Emory Spoke, the Emory Arts Club and others. The house at 14 Eagle Row contains around 40 beds, so Bonovich sent out a separate applications to those on the roster to compete for spots.
"I'm really excited that we finally have this space, especially since the Visual Arts and Journalism department cuts," Bonovich said. She added that she believes the campus will be highly receptive to the residents' social gatherings, which could resemble the arts showcase co-hosted by The Pulse and Alpha Tau Omega fraternity in September, or The Spoke's comedy show last month.
"They're not going to be typical fraternity parties, which I think the Emory community is really excited about," she said, adding that she thinks the house's social events will be "a twist" on the standard gatherings on Eagle Row.
Members of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity, who applied to remain in their current house at 8 Eagle Row with a theme instead of living in 22 Eagle Row without a theme, will live under the theme “Engaging Emory: Reflect, Respect, Respond.”
“ZBT already embodies what they’re doing [for the theme], so this is just a step up for them,” Rausch said. He added that ResLife had not yet chosen an RA for 8 Eagle Row. As for a faculty adviser related to the group’s theme, Assistant Director of the Respect Program Drew Rizzo will guide ZBT in its work on “Engaging Emory.”
ZBT President and Business School junior Max Mayblum said that, while the fraternity brothers were initially upset with ResLife’s requiring them to apply to remain in the house they’ve occupied this year, he says ZBT’s new theme will promote and expand the work the chapter has done in terms of inclusiveness and sexual assault prevention this year.
“When we were building this application, we realized that there are a lot of great things [related to the theme] we’re doing already,” Mayblum said, adding that the fraternity brothers were “happy to be in the house that we call home.”
Other applicant groups included Alpha Kappa Psi fraternity and Emory Entrepreneurship and Venture Management, with a theme of “Business Leadership”; the Inter-Religious Council, with a theme called “Concordia House”; Delta Tau Delta fraternity, with a theme called “Committed to Lives of Excellence”; Feminists in Action at Emory with a theme of Feminism; Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity with a theme of “Ethical Engagement” and Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity with a theme of Social Justice, according to Rausch.
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