A few years ago, fire inspectors in Morgantown shut down half the fraternity houses at West Virginia University. Since then, the school has forged agreements with five of the campus's 14 houses. The school collects members' rent, makes repairs and employs staff to supervise the houses. WVU owns one of the houses, and it's looking to buy more.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A few years ago, fire inspectors in Morgantown shut down half the fraternity houses at West Virginia University.
Since then, the school has forged agreements with five of the campus's 14 houses. The school collects members' rent, makes repairs and employs staff to supervise the houses.
WVU owns one of the houses, and it's looking to buy more.
"Many college campuses have done this, and it's been very successful," said student organizations director Ron Justice, who also is the mayor of Morgantown.
Some fraternity members say university ownership cramps their style when it comes to partying. However, it also rids them of some legal liabilities and helps them collect rent money.
Last month, Beta Theta Pi - whose house was shut down last year - informed alumni that it intends to sell its house to WVU. The school would assume notes payable on the house's $400,000 loan. It would spend $500,000 on capital improvements on the house.
In exchange, the fraternity's alumni group would agree to run a $1 million capital campaign with the help of the WVU Foundation, according to the letter sent to alumni. Alumni are set to vote on the matter Oct. 11.
WVU is talking to three other fraternities about similar setups, Justice said, but the school doesn't plan to buy up every house.
"Our focus right now is not to actually buy the properties, but to manage them, and to make sure they're being operated in the proper manner," he said.
Many colleges in other states have long been active in Greek housing, Justice said.
The University of South Carolina's "Greek Village" has been modeled by schools across the country, said Jerry Brewer, the associate vice president of student life and development there.
USC opened the village in 2002. The school owns the land in the village, but alumni house corporations own the 17 houses.
Each house had a full-time director, and the school maintains common areas in the village. The university handles billing for students' room and board, and financial aid can be applied to those bills, he said.
"It's fairly seamless with all the university amenities," Brewer said.
Two summers ago, Justice and others from WVU visited USC to check out the Greek Village. Justice said WVU doesn't have the resources to replicate it.
"The biggest difference that we have, compared to South Carolina, is the availability of land," he said.
WVU is exploring buying land "in and around the houses" at WVU, Justice said.
He emphasized, though, that officials do not want to relocate the fraternities.
"If we do look at this village concept, it would be around our existing homes," Justice said. "It wouldn't be a situation where we'd ask them to relocate. It would be to build around their current investments."
Beta Theta Pi chapter President Zach Houchin said some members and alumni speculate that the school is trying to get rid of fraternities by buying houses.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A few years ago, fire inspectors in Morgantown shut down half the fraternity houses at West Virginia University.
Since then, the school has forged agreements with five of the campus's 14 houses. The school collects members' rent, makes repairs and employs staff to supervise the houses.
WVU owns one of the houses, and it's looking to buy more.
"Many college campuses have done this, and it's been very successful," said student organizations director Ron Justice, who also is the mayor of Morgantown.
Some fraternity members say university ownership cramps their style when it comes to partying. However, it also rids them of some legal liabilities and helps them collect rent money.
Last month, Beta Theta Pi - whose house was shut down last year - informed alumni that it intends to sell its house to WVU. The school would assume notes payable on the house's $400,000 loan. It would spend $500,000 on capital improvements on the house.
In exchange, the fraternity's alumni group would agree to run a $1 million capital campaign with the help of the WVU Foundation, according to the letter sent to alumni. Alumni are set to vote on the matter Oct. 11.
WVU is talking to three other fraternities about similar setups, Justice said, but the school doesn't plan to buy up every house.
"Our focus right now is not to actually buy the properties, but to manage them, and to make sure they're being operated in the proper manner," he said.
Many colleges in other states have long been active in Greek housing, Justice said.
The University of South Carolina's "Greek Village" has been modeled by schools across the country, said Jerry Brewer, the associate vice president of student life and development there.
USC opened the village in 2002. The school owns the land in the village, but alumni house corporations own the 17 houses.
Each house had a full-time director, and the school maintains common areas in the village. The university handles billing for students' room and board, and financial aid can be applied to those bills, he said.
"It's fairly seamless with all the university amenities," Brewer said.
Two summers ago, Justice and others from WVU visited USC to check out the Greek Village. Justice said WVU doesn't have the resources to replicate it.
"The biggest difference that we have, compared to South Carolina, is the availability of land," he said.
WVU is exploring buying land "in and around the houses" at WVU, Justice said.
He emphasized, though, that officials do not want to relocate the fraternities.
"If we do look at this village concept, it would be around our existing homes," Justice said. "It wouldn't be a situation where we'd ask them to relocate. It would be to build around their current investments."
Beta Theta Pi chapter President Zach Houchin said some members and alumni speculate that the school is trying to get rid of fraternities by buying houses.
He said that's not the case.
"It's simply to help us operate and function properly," Houchin said.
Overall, fraternity members have mixed feelings about selling houses to WVU, said Patrick Curry, president of the Interfraternity Council there.
On the one hand, they're enticed by the possibility of renovations. Since making agreements with the school, some houses have gotten major improvements paid for by WVU.
However, some members are weary of restrictions and the requirements to have a certain amount of people living in a house, Curry said.
Many fraternities have struggled with collecting rent money, leaving little money to maintain houses, several people said.
Usually, fraternity houses are operated by private housing corporations staffed by alumni volunteers. The corporations often don't have any leverage in collecting the bills, Curry said.
"The university does," he said. "They can do things with your credit."
WVU owns the Sigma Alpha Epsilon house. The building used to be the Delta Tau Delta house, but that chapter had its charter revoked by its national office.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon's WVU chapter was chartered last April.
"It's a pretty nice set-up because they take care of us," said chapter president Steve Seem. "It's hard to keep a house running, especially at WVU."
The fraternity can't throw house parties, and the university police can stop by at any time, even though they don't go into individual rooms.
"Some of the guys don't like it," Seem said, "but, as president, it helps a lot managing risk as a whole."
Housing is an important part of fostering an active Greek system, Justice said.
"If you can't sustain your house and it's a dump, and it's shut down because of fire codes, you're not going to get membership," Justice said. "If you don't have housing, in most cases it's very hard for a chapter to survive meeting in the Mountainlair [student union]."
Well-kept Greek houses also make the whole campus look better, Brewer of South Carolina said.
"The aesthetics of campus - whether it's the flower beds, or the trees on campus, or your buildings - that appearance matters," Brewer said.
Justice noted that WVU has not had the same maintenance problems with sororities: "Their houses are in much better condition."
Reach Alison Knezevich at alis...@wvgazette.com">alis...@wvgazette.com or 348-1240.
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I will tell you first hand this was the bissest mistake we ever made in our chapter's long history. If if WVU Beta alumni vote for this, they will eventually lose thier house. Don't do it. Please don't be so foolish to make such a huge mistake. University employess constantly move/leave. The spirit of such agreements are quickly forgotten. If Beta sells this house to the university, they will eventually lose it. This is fact.