[hoosier]

I think this sucks - not that the chapter is thrown out, but that the members are eligible for other university housing.

And no refund?

I hope the SAEs get lawyer.


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Oct 25, 2004
Closing time on No. 4 Frat Row
Booted Sigma Alpha Epsilon members find themselves in tight quarters
By Hadass Kogan
Staff writer


When Jesse Rothman and Chris Jennings move out of their room inside 4 Fraternity Row Friday, it won't be the last time they share a living space. In fact, the two former Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity members plan to spend the rest of the semester in close quarters.

"We are going to be sleeping together on a couch," Jennings said.

Jennings and Rothman are two of 27 former members of the university chapter scrambling to find housing after a national charter revocation last week disbanded the organization on the campus. Officials told residents they must vacate the house by Friday and won't be allowed to live in any university-sponsored housing as a result of the expulsion.

A complaint filed by a fraternity member led to an investigation including interviews with at least eight fraternity members. The organization was charged with violating the university's hazing and alcohol policies, including forcing pledges to drink underage, clean the house and participate in late-night lineups in the house basement during which brothers screamed at and pushed them. Pledges were also forced to reveal embarrassing experiences while under the influence at a Sigma Alpha Epsilon-sponsored party with a sorority.

As a result, the house on Fraternity Row no longer belongs to the organization, nor does the university recognize the chapter as an official student group. The event could hurt the national organization's attempt for reinstatement in 2008.

Many house residents still do not know where they will live after Friday. Some said they are considering moving back home and commuting to school for the rest of the semester. Another three have signed a lease to live in an apartment on Knox Road.

With almost $4,000 worth of housing and meal fees lost without refund, many say they cannot afford the financial burden of signing another lease this year, much less the inconvenience of searching for an off-campus home midsemester.

Rothman said he will pack up his room this week and spend his birthday driving a carload of possessions back to his home in New York before moving onto a friend's couch.

And he and new couchmate Jennings consider themselves lucky.

"A lot of kids still don't know where they are living," Jennings said. "We are lucky we found people to look out for us."

Nick Ziegler, spokesman for the national Sigma Alpha Epsilon office, said residents are being assisted in their searches for alternative housing options, a claim that many denied.

"That's bulls---," Jennings said. "Absolute bulls---."

He said only four residents boarding inside the house - with no affiliation to the fraternity - received help coordinating living arrangements. The boarders were given priority for on-campus housing, said Mike Hayes, director of the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life. ÿÿ