Phi Mu Alpha members are reworking housing arrangements for next year after losing the right to self-select residents for the building occupied by the music fraternity for 16 years.

After learning in April they had lost their exclusive housing rights, some Phi Mu Alpha members said they would go through the regular housing process to continue living in the building.

But Phi Mu Alpha members won’t make up the majority of the residents in the all-male residence hall next year, said Andrew Levin, a member of the fraternity. As a result of unfruitful attempts to fill the house with members through the regular housing process, they are looking for other on-campus and off-campus housing options.

Phi Mu Alpha lost its exclusive housing status after it was discovered that non-fraternity members were solicited to live in the house. Members began looking for other housing options for next year after the Office of Student Affairs denied appeals.

Weinberg sophomore Chazz Baker chose to move to an off-campus apartment with some friends after Phi Mu Alpha lost its exclusive housing.

Baker said the people he will be moving off campus with had been looking into an apartment around the same time Phi Mu Alpha’s exclusivity was being debated, and he asked his friends to wait to find another roommate until after he was sure of what Phi Mu Alpha’s housing situation was going to be.

“After it became clear that (the office of student affairs) wasn’t going to reverse (the decision), I went with them,” said Baker, adding that he was sick of housing for other reasons too — such as overpriced dining hall meals.

Levin, a Weinberg sophomore who currently lives in 626 Emerson, was able to live in the building again next year with his roommate.

“The reason we stuck with (626 Emerson) is that all residence halls are pretty much the same,” Levin said.

He said the atmosphere of the building differs from year to year — even when only Phi Mu Alpha members are residents of the house. And although living with Phi Mu Alpha members was good, Levin said he is optimistic about meeting new people next year.

“Each year you’re hoping people are considerate and that they are people you want to hang out with,” said Levin. “It may be interesting — meeting new people.”

For spring pledges, the prospect of living in 626 Emerson was not an option, since Phi Mu Alpha lost its exclusive housing before pledges had been recruited.

Kyle Eck, a Communication freshman, felt not being able to live in 626 Emerson made no difference to him in the pledging process. Eck said he might have lived in the building if it was still the fraternity’s chapter house.

“If the timing had been right, I would have thought about living in the house,” he said.

Although living in Public Affairs Residential College next year, Eck said he hopes the fraternity is granted exclusive housing for the 2006-07 year, as he is interested in living in the house.

Reach Marcy Miranda at [email protected].