By Maggie Callaghan, For The Miami Student
Miami University has attracted attention this fall as the university cracked down on three fraternities after incidents from last semester. Due to those sanctions, three more fraternity houses, plus the four other houses already sanctioned, sit vacant in Oxford.
Of the 25 fraternities represented on Miami's campus, seven have been forced to leave their houses by the university, their fraternity's national headquarters or both. Sophomore members of the fraternities sanctioned last spring or this summer currently live in dorms.
Those who live in the fraternity house are responsible for paying the dues that go toward the maintenance and operations of the house. When members are not living in the house and pay for on-campus housing rather than fraternity housing, alumni carry the burden of covering the mortgage and maintenance of the fraternity house. This is a huge financial burden for alumni, as some fraternity houses in Oxford cost upward of $1 million.
Jenny Levering is the director of Student Activities and the Cliff Alexander Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life. Levering said that, depending on the situation, the Cliff Office will facilitate discussions between the Office of Ethics and Student Conflict Resolution (OESCR) and the Greek organization's national headquarters to ensure that every party is informed about the situation. The H.O.M.E office is then responsible for notifying sophomores about changes to housing, if necessary.
Three of those seven fraternities, Phi Kappa Psi, Sigma Nu and Kappa Sigma, have sophomore members living in Miami University dorms this year because their suspensions began in the spring or summer.
According to the Butler County Auditor website, the Sigma Nu house on Tallawanda Road is valued at $1,134,830. The Sigma Nu chapter at Miami University was officially suspended on April 20 of this year, and will not be recognized again until March 2018. No members are living in the house during this time.
Austin Worrell, one of the sophomores in Sigma Nu, expressed his disappointment about not getting to live in the fraternity house.
"The Sigma Nu house became like a second home for us last semester and now we are missing out on living there with over 50 of our closest friends and brothers," said Worrell. "It sits empty, filled with history and tradition, that for this year we cannot be a part of nor contribute to."
Because members of Sigma Nu are not paying dues during their suspension period, alumni members have had to step in. According to public documents obtained by The Miami Student, this was one of the main concerns of Miami's Sigma Nu alumni board.
In a letter to Rose Marie Ward, chair of the University Appeals Board, the alumni board said Sigma Nu's annual housing costs run between $80,000 and $90,000. These costs come from mortgage payments, real estate taxes, utilities, general maintenance of the house, long-term vendor/provider contracts and building security, according to the letter.
"Our non-profit organization is unable to meet these costs without any corresponding revenue," they wrote.
In a separate letter written to Ward, junior and former Sigma Nu president Will Ives said that, before suspension, these housing costs were met by rent payments from student members, which amounted to $400,000 annually.
"Without the rent payments of student members, the alumni chapter will find it difficult to survive," Ives wrote.
Additionally, members of the alumni board said they had spent more than $250,000 in the last two years, renovating and improving the Sigma Nu house. This, they said, made up the majority of alumni contributions.
"[That money] has been reinvested into the chapter house to improve the living conditions and enhance safety and security for our resident student members."
However, unlike Sigma Nu, when Beta Theta Pi was suspended in 2012, the house - located at the corner of Campus Avenue and High Street - had been paid in full, with no mortgage for the alumni to pick up. The value of Beta's two housing properties - $690,020 and $341,480 - amount to more than $1 million.
But in order to keep the house, Beta was in good enough financial standing that the members used money that was left in their reserves to pay for maintenance, taxes and insurance, while the house sat empty for a year, according to Phil Fernandez. Fernandez is a Miami and Beta alumnus ('06) and is now the Director of Advancement for Beta Theta Pi National Headquarters.
"We were blessed to receive $34,000-plus in donations from our generous alumni to help keep our chapter afloat," said Fernandez.
Although some alumni are displeased when their chapters misbehave and need alternatives for bearing the costs, they believe the brotherhood that exists among members of their fraternities is more important than any check or deposit.
"Once the shock of the closure wore off, the bigger picture began to set in … alumni rallied around the long-term viability of the chapter, knowing it was more important," Fernandez said.
The fraternity national headquarters have also stepped up to cover the costs for the fraternity house and ease the burden for alumni. One solution to the problem was renting the house to other fraternities.
Two other fraternities currently occupy the Beta Theta Pi houses - Alpha Sigma Phi and Lambda Chi Alpha
Similarly, the Sigma Chi house on Sycamore Street was occupied by Phi Gamma Delta (FIJI) last year - after the FIJI house on High Street burned down and before its renovations were completed this year.
Although these fraternities do have safety nets in place to keep their houses running and in good condition, a simpler alternative is to keep the chapters out of trouble in the first. Most fraternity national headquarters have risk management directors and guidelines in place so their chapter houses don't sit vacant.
Most fraternities have risk management outlines that clearly state the policies enforced by their national headquarters. Chapters also have people responsible for working directly with their members to ensure these policies are followed.
According to Michael Wahba, the Director of Chapter Services for Phi Delta Theta - one of the fraternities founded at Miami (and still recognized on campus) - every chapter is visited by one of its leadership consultants twice a year, who educate and guide chapters to ensure their operations are up to the standards of the organization.
"The best approach is to educate our members and equip them with the tools to make the best choices and give them the confidence to intervene in situations that do not reflect our values," said Wahba.