At the end of the spring semester, members of the University of Idaho’s Delta Chi fraternity will lose their house for two years.
“We’re not losing our charter — we’re losing our house,” said Matthew Shaw, out-of-house junior. “I think all of this that’s going on is kind of unfair because it’s more of just a bias from the university.”
Delta Chi President Nick Miller said the alumni who own the house are going to rent it out.
“The university won’t let us house freshmen so basically that means that we won’t be able to fill the house and we remodeled a couple years ago,” he said. “So we have a mortgage out on the house and if we don’t have enough people here paying house bills then we can’t pay the mortgage.”
They plan to draw up a two-year lease for alternative living, Miller said.
Zack Fox, associate member chair of Delta Chi, said the university feels the fraternity is an “unsatisfactory environment for freshmen to develop in.”
Delta Chi members took part in numerous risk management events during the last three years where they engaged in unsafe activities, Dean of Students Bruce Pitman said. These events led to citations.
“I think the most important message to our UI family is that we are concerned,” Pitman said.
The university wants to make sure living groups are safe places for students to live and go to school, Pitman said. Undergraduate leaders are responsible for monitoring activities within the organization as well as the behavior of their members, he said.
“In 2009 there was a period of time (when) every nine days, an individual of Delta Chi was getting a ticket specifically. Obviously the university didn’t like that,” Fox said. “Everything on Greek Row is all about perspective and perception to how people view you and you know, your past haunts you.”
The university wants Delta Chi members to spend some time thinking about what they did, and work on cleaning up their act, Fox said. It’s not something that will change overnight.
“I think we’re one of two houses … that have a live-in adviser. We’ve made a long-term commitment to be an alcohol-free house so in my personal opinion I consider us to be one of the safest houses on campus and one of the most suitable houses for freshmen,” Miller said.
Their international organization has still given the house the option to keep its charter. Miller said he is going to make sure they do.
“As long as we are still active in the Greek community,” he said. “We’ll keep our charter and we’ll be able to retain our house in two years.”
Molly Spencer can be reached at [email protected]