After successful negotiations with Northwestern’s chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi regarding a new house for the frat, Patricia Telles-Irvin, vice president of student affairs, said her office hopes to sign contracts with Zeta Beta Tau and Theta Chi for relocation by Fall Quarter 2012. ZBT’s president, however, says the fraternity is unsure whether it actually plans to move.
“We are just trying to cooperate with the University, but also we’d like to be treated fairly in the process,” ZBT president and Medill junior Jon Rosenberg said. “I’m not setting a timetable and we’re not sure on, at least from our end, where we plan on, if we plan on, moving.”
Telles-Irvin said the move has been a goal of NU’s for a while. She began talks after touring the facilities and finding them to be inadequate, and she approached the fraternities at the end of Fall Quarter 2011.
“I am concerned with the safety of the building,” she said. “Parts of it have been boarded up and condemned, and my first concern is to the students, and it seems to me that they should be living in better residential halls.”
The fraternity leaders and fraternities’ housing corporations – alumni members who own the leases on the current houses - met with Telles-Irvin and members of the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life to discuss relocating, said Julie Payne-Kirchmeier, assistant vice president for student auxiliary services, who is also involved in the talks.
AEPi signed a contract last week to relocate to 584 Lincoln St. Telles-Irvin sent an email to the University informing community members of the move and the ongoing discussion with ZBT and Theta Chi.
Rosenberg said the fraternity was just getting involved in the talks, and when the email was sent out by Telles-Irvin, it was not as far along in the process as AEPi and Theta Chi.
Rosenberg said as an organization, ZBT is fond of its current residence because it has occupied the house since the chapter formed on campus.
“There’s definitely a strong emotional attachment to the house,” he said. “And if or when we have to leave it would be sad. For now, we’re very happy here.”
Payne-Kirchmeier said the houses will likely be demolished once vacated. Although they are up to par with University safety regulations, she said the buildings are too rundown to remain in use.
“They are meeting the appropriate code that they are supposed to be meeting,” she said. “But it’s a matter of a) for how long and b) it’s just not appropriate. It’s not okay for them to be living in those spaces.”
AEPi President Adam Matsil said he had never felt unsafe in the house but that the fraternity has had issues in the past. Matsil, a McCormick senior, said the three fraternity houses in question are located next to two abandoned buildings that used to belong to Pi Kappa Alpha and Chi Phi, a fraternity that does not currently exist on campus. He said people break into the empty houses regularly and that AEPi lost power once because of a circuit shortage in the abandoned Pike house, Matsil said.
Rosenberg said he was not against moving if a suitable location was determined. He added he was not sure when ZBT’s lease will end, but it will not be in the next year. As of now the fraternity has not made any final decisions about moving.
“We have the lease, right now, to the house. We’re not opting out (of the lease) to the University,” he said.
Telles-Irvin said the University owned the houses and has final say over what happens with them. However, she said administrators plan to work with the students until an agreeable solution is reached.
NU is looking for alternative housing in University-owned buildings on north campus near the fraternity quads. Payne-Kirchmeier said members of the fraternities and their housing corporations are taking tours of possible locations.
“I’m hopeful,” she said. “I think the fact they’re walking through some of the facilities with architects is a good sign. Let’s see what the options are, and I think it’s in everybody’s best interest that we do get it resolved by the fall.”
