KA-UGa: Next to a landfill, it's hard to think of a less desirable neighbor

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UGA plan is key for Kappa Alpha

Published on: 09/06/06
Next to a landfill or a munitions factory, it's hard to think of a less desirable neighbor than a frat house.
So if residents of Athens' Reese Street historic district are reluctant to welcome a proposed Kappa Alpha Order fraternity house in their midst, it's understandable. The fraternity has purchased a 30-year-old apartment complex in the neighborhood that it intends to replace with a brick, plantation-style white-columned fraternity house large enough to sleep 30 members. Kappa Alpha alums fronted the $2.7 million to buy the 2.5-acre site, and a fund-raising campaign is under way to pay for the construction.
However, the discomfort of the predominantly black Reese Street community is compounded by Kappa Alpha's trademark veneration of the Old South, which it manifests by the display of Confederate battle flags and a penchant to dress up in Confederate grays and squire dates in hoop skirts.
To ease concerns of a culture clash, fraternity members and leaders have pledged to avoid behavior that might offend their prospective neighbors, but it's hard to take that seriously. Shortly after making that promise this spring, a dozen Kappa Alpha members at the group's 2006 Old South weekend posed for a photo in full Confederate regalia, except for their running shoes and penny loafers. Two brothers turned away from the camera to display Confederate battle flags on the back of their Old South T-shirts.
That photo, which frat members posted on the Internet, suggests they possess neither the maturity nor sensitivity to make good on their pledge or be good neighbors.
To defuse the situation, University of Georgia officials have offered to create a Greek village along River Road for Kappa Alpha and four other Lumpkin Street fraternity houses that will be displaced next year by campus expansion.
The university would build the houses and grant fraternities a 30-year lease. While that's less desirable than outright ownership to the fraternity, UGA would also handle general maintenance and repair, custodial services for common areas and landscaping. Those services would assure that the university could keep gentle tabs on fraternity life and retain some measure of control over what goes on inside, while allowing Kappa Alpha safe haven to continue its apparently cherished habit of reliving the Confederacy.
— Maureen Downey, for the editorial board, Atlanta Journal-Constitution