Frats dispute unclean image

[moe.ron]

Frats dispute unclean image
By Arna Wilkinson - The Daily Iowan
Published: Thursday, May 6, 2004

Iowa City rental-housing inspector Norm Cate has seen it all.

Overflowing garbage, rotting food, dead pets in basements, animal feces - nothing surprises the eight-year city worker, who assesses 15,500 rental units in Iowa City. But of all the units Cate inspects every one or two years, few have had more problems than UI fraternity houses, he said.

"When you have 15 to 45 young men all living in one house with no adult supervision, things can get pretty wild," Cate said, adding that violations are typically handled within a month or two. Sororities, he said, rarely have housing violations.

Some fraternity members dispute that assertion, however, and they argue that the city's recent eviction of the UI Beta Theta Pi fraternity will cause more to be branded Animal Houses.

"I think that people obviously see the [Beta Theta Pi] house as one of the UI fraternity houses, and they think that all the houses will be like that, but they're not at all," said Sigma Phi Epsilon member Raj Patil.

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