When the leases to nine fraternity and sorority houses expire this summer, Northwestern will not renew them. Instead university administrators will revise the leases to assume more control of maintenance and to ensure adherence to safety standards.
“We were facing significant expenses in all of our student housing in the years ahead to make them accessible and to include fire safety,” said Vice President of Student Affairs William Banis, who announced the policy change at a meeting of Greek chapter advisers on Saturday. “We want to make sure it’s done and done well.”
Several houses currently do not comply with Illinois state fire regulations or the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, both of which were enacted after the houses’ constructions. Banis said revising the leases would allow the university to ensure that all the houses meet the standards of the residence halls, which do comply with regulations.
“We have great variations in the quality of housing in the Greek units,” Banis said. “Some of our units are absolutely beautiful. We have other students living in sub-optimal situations that don’t meet our standards. We aim to bring things into a consistent standard with residence hall students.”
Under the revised leases, Greek chapters would still lease the land from the university, but NU would maintain the facilities and treat them like dorms, Banis said.
Some advisers were concerned that the money their chapters had spent on renovations would be lost, now that the university is shouldering the costs of renovations, according to Kappa Alpha Theta’s Advisory Board Chairwoman Betsy Hoza, who was present at Saturday’s meeting.
“I do know some of the other advisers were worried that they’ve already invested all this money in this house and the lease they’ve drawn up will not be fair and their fees will go to the fraternity houses,” Hoza said.
Chapters that have kept up with renovations will be rewarded, Banis said.
“For those that have been good stewards and have made investments, they will get credits in terms of discounts on fees,” he said. “We intend to be fair about this.”
John Curry, president of the home association for Sigma Chi fraternity, said he worried that the new leases would essentially transfer ownership of the Greek houses to the university.
“Although I have not seen the new policy, it appears that the new policy would result in a forfeiture of capital owned by fraternities and sororities to the university,” Curry said. “Most of that capital was raised through direct contributions from alumni who intended to donate it for the direct use of the fraternity or sorority.”
Banis estimated that the new leases will be phased in over approximately eight years as existing 10-year leases expire. Under the new leases, the university would pay for services like utilities, trash removal and insurance but allow the houses to retain and even expand their roles as Greek residences.
“We will lease the facilities to the house corporations and give them permission to use those facilities for their programming purposes,” Banis said. “But we will run them more like residence halls and assume more responsibility for maintenance.”
The lease revisions also threaten fraternities’ ability to return to their residences if asked to leave campus, said Peter Schellenbach, a Sigma Chi alumni adviser.
“If for any reason a house is closed, they effectively lose that house, and if they recolonize they can expect to come back to a different house,” said Schellenbach, Communication ’64. “NU would effectively be taking control and would then reassign that house to a different organization, as opposed to it being vacant or some other arrangement.”
But Banis said reassignment of Greek houses remains contingent on the terms of the leases. Banis said the new leases will essentially turn the Greek houses into renters of the university property they occupy, a business model most universities currently follow.
“The old model we have is really an anomaly,” Banis said. “What we’re doing is a more typical model.”
