Future Alumnus Doesnt want to leave house
 

So we have a guy graduating in may who is going to grad school at our university in the fall. He's assuming he gets to stay in his room at the house (has lived at the house for 3 years >>), and is even telling the freshmen moving into his room that he isnt moving out, going for year #4. We're going to make him leave, but how do we do it politely? He isn't very well liked especially by the freshman and is bad for rush, as our chapter has recently tripled in size and upped drastically in quality.

fyi, we dont have any policy on alumni and housing.

Make it a policy then tell him housing's only for undergrads.

i agree with nittany, vote on it, put it in your by-laws, and problem solved.

The only problem with that is any policy you make as a chapter usually can't be effective immediately. And this guy will def know you're doing it because of him. I mean - it's almost April now - you should have resolved this a while ago instead of waiting to the last minute.

Scour your national rules and see if there is any sort of risk mgmt policy that says undergrads only are allowed to live in the house (except for paid employees like house moms).

If you are in contact with any of the other alumni who know this guy, call them up and explain the situation and ask if they'll help him get an apartment. As much as I loved living in the house, anyone who wants to go for their 4th year there while going into grad school has some issues, either monetary or mental.

I realize that my chapter doesn't have a house, so we're in a totally different situation. However, I don't think bylaw/standing rule changes can't take place immediately. Depending on who has to vote on it, they can vote pretty soon and by the time the semester is over, he won't be allowed to stay.

I'm thinking about other changes we've made to our bylaws/standing rules, and I'm pretty sure they took effect right after.

The problem with making a bylaw change because of one person is that down the line, you might have the opposite situation....say 4 years from now they have an alum who everyone loves, who is the most popular guy on campus, who is there for grad school and because of financial constraints can't afford anyplace else to live. They have to either tell him no or change their bylaws back again.

Making a bylaw change doesn't deal with the real problem here - the guy assuming that he could live in the house and/or a housing situation where there's no way for the brothers to deny someone housing because his presence is negative.

This may end up being a learning experience - but if he was allowed to make a down payment etc, there's really nothing the chapter can do.

You're best option is just to sit down with him, and explain in order to be fair to all the guys who would like the opportunity to live in the house, yall will have to ask him to leave.

otherwise, you'll have to get into complicated lease papers for reasons if you dont want to be rude and just tell to guy to leave.

don't you have leases or some sort of contract?

Don't you have a house corporation?

Don't you wish your girlfriend was..... oh wait...

I don't have any advice, but I sympathize with your situation and hope it is resolved in the most brotherly way possible.

Although, I did have an idea -- in your housing contract, or whatever documents you have, does it say that the housing is just for active brothers? And if so, are grad students considered active?

I feel like the loophole here is that he won't be an Active brother unless your org allows graduate students to be active.

Hopefully, y'all can just sit down and work this thing out. If not...

The reason I ask about the house corporation is that while y'all might handle the day to day property management, you might want them to come in here and do their thing. If you have a housing contract, that's great. There are some other issues here though -- like landlord/tenant law which might be involved if y'all want to kick him out. Consult with an alumnus/attorney or a member of the house corporation and they should be able to help you out.

if you dont, your chapter is not conducting business properly

Get somebody form your housing corporation to talk with him. Give him a deadline of when he needs to be gone.

We had a similar situation last year, he graduated in december and started grad school but stayed in the house til the summer. People got fed up with him and the bs he kept starting. We went as far as banning him from the house.

Also, don't you have some procedural guidelines for who gets first options to live in the house? How do you handle it if more guys want to live in than you have room for? I would think that some of these kinds of guidelines would imply that undergrads live in .. like "seniors get first option, juniors get second option", etc. If grad students aren't listed, then it's implied that they don't have the option.

I know that the men work things differently from the women but this might work. Is he still considered a chapter member once he has graduated? In most NPC groups they are no longer "in the chapter." And since the house is available only to "chapter members", grad students cannot live in. We can make exceptions for grad students IF there is space available after all the "chapter members" are accomodated AND they agree to follow all house and chapter rules.