Students in Monday’s housing assignment process were able to select the Phi Mu Alpha house as a dorm choice for next year following the denial of the music fraternity’s petition to renew its exclusive status, the fraternity’s president said.

McCormick junior David Storch said the Office of Student Affairs rejected the fraternity’s petition in accordance with a March recommendation from the advisory committee on housing and food services.

The committee, Storch said, advised against renewing exclusive status after discovering the fraternity had solicited non-members to live in its 626 Emerson St. house this year — a violation of exclusive housing privileges, according to Mark D’Arienzo, associate director of university housing. There are six non-members living in the 33-person house this year, Storch said.

Exclusive status allows building tenants to self-select who will live in their building, D’Arienzo said. This year there are four such buildings.

The fraternity was not notified of the committee’s March recommendation until it received a letter on April 5 signed by committee co-chairs on behalf of William Banis, vice president of student affairs, notifying members that they would not be granted exclusive status, Storch said.

The loss was a matter of miscommunication, said Storch, who is the chapter’s spokesman on the matter.

“The previous president met with the housing committee and assured them that we do have enough members to fill the house for next year, but due to things like the co-op and study abroad, some guys weren’t going to be here in the fall and we had three or four open spots in the house,” Storch said.

The fraternity “was under the impression that the desire of the Housing and Food Service committee was that Phi Mu Alpha fill every available spot as its primary task,” Storch wrote in an e-mail to The Daily. They then sent out e-mails in search of non-member residents.

Mary Goldenberg, the director of residential life and co-chair of the Housing and Food Services Policy Advisory Board, declined to be interviewed. She said in an e-mail that “As an advisory board, the deliberations and recommendations of the Housing and Food Service Policy Advisory Board are confidential.”

D’Arienzo declined to comment specifically on Phi Mu Alpha.

Storch said the situation could have been avoided had the committee communicated better with Phi Mu Alpha members.

“The thing about this committee is that they never brought up these (solicitation) e-mails,” Storch said. “We’ve had horrible communication with housing.”

The fraternity plans to apply for exclusive housing again next year, he said. Members are trying to live in the house by going through the normal housing procedure, Storch said. But it may not feel the same.

For one, the fraternity may have to find a new place to store its four pianos and its music library, he said. The red, black and yellow Greek letters adorning the front of the building — the only fraternity house in the Sorority Quads — probably will be removed, he said.

“This building is very important to us and its location is important to us,” said Storch, referring to is proximity to the music school.

Phi Mu Alpha members have lived in the house for 16 years, Storch said, and it has been exclusive on-campus housing for three years.

Reach Marcy Miranda at [email protected].