A proposed increase in city housing fees could raise the cost of living in Greek residences and even threaten the existence of some of the houses, university officials said.
The proposal is part of Ald. Gene Feldman’s budget amendment. The amendment — which would save various programs slated for elimination under the city manager’s proposed budget — doubles rooming house license fees, which apply to Northwestern Greek houses and dorms.
Eugene Sunshine, Northwestern’s vice president for business and finance, said Feldman’s plan would place a heavy burden on fraternities and sororities.
“The viability of these places could be threatened,” he said.
But Feldman (9th) said he couldn’t believe the increase would displace students or harm Greek houses. The price of his increase on an average student would be “about the cost of a pizza,” he said.
The current fee charges $166 a year for the first four people who inhabit a building and adds $26 a year for each additional person. The amendment would double the per-person charge, raising about $188,000 in additional city revenue.
Higher fees would result in increased costs for Greek houses, which would probably be passed along to their members, Sunshine said.
If the city gets into the habit of increasing fees, it might drive some Greek residents into off-campus housing, Sunshine said. He said that would complicate downtown parking and nullify the revenue the fees were designed to generate.
“They really run a risk of killing the goose that laid the golden egg,” Sunshine said. “The degree of the increase is staggering.”
But if students are having trouble paying, Feldman said, NU should ask landlords to charge less for apartments and houses — or the university should just chip in itself.
“Tell the university to lower their tuition by that much, and then the students wouldn’t have to pay anything,” Feldman said. “Why should the city pay?”
Feldman originally said the fees had not been raised since 1975. But Evanston City Council minutes show that the fees were doubled in 2000. Feldman said the error was the result of a miscommunication with city officials, who gave him the date the fees were instituted, not when they were last raised.
NU currently pays $66,000 on the fees for dorms, said Lucile Krasnow, special assistant for community relations. She said that while the university could absorb some of the cost for dorms, Greek students would have to pay for themselves.
“If they are talking about doubling it again, can you imagine that these fraternities and sororities will be paying almost $100,000 just to exist in the city of Evanston?” Krasnow said, adding that concerned students should contact the city council.
The fees cost sororities $14,643 in 2000 and $31,880 in 2001, according to Krasnow. Tiffany Obenchain, vice president of finance for Panhellenic Association, said doubling the fees would affect the budgets of all sororities.
“That’s a huge increase,” she said.
Fraternities paid $17,990 in license fees after they were doubled in 2001, she said. In 2000, they paid $7,698.
Steve Gondek, treasurer of Phi Gamma Delta, said the fees would not increase so much that they would hurt his fraternity. But he did say Fiji would have to increase dues to recoup some of the cost.
“That’s a couple social events,” Gondek said. “But if it’s the law, we’d have to put up with it.”
The Daily’s Jerome C. Pandell and Elaine Helm contributed to this report.
