TKE House, or Lack hereof

[TekeGuy]

Fellow brothers,

I am a brother at Tau-Omega chapter up in Ottawa, Canada. Our chapter is fairly new, we were colonized in 1996 and chartered in 2000. That being said, our bond is still as strong as any of our brothers' chapters South of the border!

Things work a bit differently up here in Canada. I call it "Greek Life Light", or "Diet Greek Life". I say this because our school does not formally recognize Greek orgnanizations, nor are we the most "active" chapter either. Tau-Omega is based out of Carleton University, which has a striving Greek community (Phi Sigs, Sigma Pi, AOPi, Kappa Sig and a few local organizations), however it really is just a fraction of what goes on in the US.

When I look at our brothers in the US, I admire and envy their dedication, commitment and especially, their houses. Unfortunately, Carleton U does not allow for fraternity houses on their campus. In fact, it is quite rare for any Canadian universities to allow for them (altough, there are exceptions).

I see a house as the binding tie that reinforces brotherhood and establishes commitment to the bond. Sure, a few brothers will lease a house and call it the "TKE house" but it is nothing more than a semi-detached, 4-bedroom family home. I can only dream of a day when I can live in a real TKE house that can hold 20+ brothers, has a chapter room, has our letters in the front, etc etc. The local Kappa Sigma chapter (Omicron-Pi) has just got a brand new million dollar house that holds 12 brother and is the envy of the Greek community. What's worse is that they were chartered just a year ago!

I've seen the Delta-Nu video and heard on these forums that they accumulated money through fundraising and alumni donations. However, we struggle to get by paying our dues as it is and our alumni have all just recently graduated within the past 5 years. What I am wondering is, what can I do? I have tried to contact international (Todd Farmer, our regional director), however have gotten no response. Can anyone here suggest anything at all? It is my dream to get a house for the future generations. This would not only reinforce TKE's position in the Ottawa Greek community, but reinforce the entire community itself as well. Thanks in advance for your input.

YITB!