Gettysburg says: install sprinklers or sell to us

[hoosier]

Gettysburg College offers to buy frat houses

By ERIN NEGLEY
Evening Sun Reporter

No Gettysburg College students died in a 2002 fire at the Sigma Chi fraternity house, but the blaze made the college think about fire safety in residence halls and fraternities.

The private college announced last spring that all sleeping rooms and common spaces in residence halls would have hard-wired smoke detectors and sprinklers by 2006. Fraternity houses must comply by 2010.

That means fraternities might have to pay more than $500,000 for the new safety features, depending on the size of the house and its proximity to a water line.

The expense might be too much for some fraternities, so the college has offered to buy the chapter houses, install the smoke detectors and sprinklers and lease the house back to the fraternity.

"Obviously, one of the goals of the board of trustees is to make the living environment as safe as possible," said Bill Lafferty, the college's director of safety and security and interim director of Greek organizations. "We've seen an obvious need to install fire detection and safety equipment."

But some fraternity members don't like the idea of replacing their alumni group landlords with college officials.

"A lot of the brotherhood is unhappy. What kind of power will the school have?" said Tau Kappa Epsilon president Ryan Whicher.

College officials extended the fire prevention mandate to the 11 fraternity houses not owned by the college because 320 college students live there, Lafferty said. The college's five sororities do not have houses.

Gettysburg Fire Chief Al Knerr said the new smoke detectors don't rely on batteries and the new hard-wired detectors will allow the college's safety and security department to pinpoint the smoky room.

"It is a great improvement, which will add in making the living areas safer for college students," he said. "With hard-wired smoke detectors, they're tamper-proof."

Smoke from cigarettes won't trigger the heat-activated sprinkler system, he added.

On campus, the college has spent about $2 million to install sprinklers and smoke alarms in dorms used by upperclassmen. Each bedroom has a smoke detector, Lafferty said, but they're not connected yet. He did not know the cost for connecting the remaining dorms.

So far, only one fraternity - Phi Delta Theta - has met the safety requirements, but several have started the work, Lafferty said.

Tau Kappa Epsilon's alumni association estimates installing the sprinklers in the sprawling home on Carlisle Street will cost $500,000, said president Ryan Whicher. The college offering to buy the house and make the changes is helpful, but the fraternity brothers have qualms about the deal.

"We have freedom to do what we want to do in our own house. We're scared they'll take that away," the college senior said.

But the freedom to stay up late, make noise and keep their privacy could cost the fraternity a half a million dollars. Several fraternities may pool their money and hire a company to do the work instead of selling the houses to the college.

"We have tons of time. There's no reason to jump to any conclusion," Whicher said.

Across the street at the Sigma Chi house, president Brad Mendosa, a senior, said the alumni group that owns the house is leaning toward selling. The student fraternity members don't have much input in the matter.

"We don't want to lose control in terms of having safety and security come in," he said. "There's a lot of tradition and ritual that's part of the fraternity experience that could be taken away."

Mendosa was a freshman when the halogen lamp overheated and caught fire, damaging the second and third floor. This promoted the new safety requirements.

"No one got hurt," Mendosa said. "I think it is a little bit overboard."

Phi Delta Theta is the sole fraternity to sell to the college. In the spring, the college bought the house at Washington Street and Lincoln Avenue for $14,000 in back taxes, said Kendra Branchick, assistant director of communications.

The college suspended the fraternity in 1996 for "failing chapter operations," said Sean Wagner, Phi Delta Theta director of expansion. Since then, the chapter house has remained empty and boarded up.

Last year, the national fraternity recruited 20 students for an interest group, the first step in becoming an official chapter. Once the group has 35 members and creates a recruitment plan, the group is eligible to become an official chapter, Wagner said.

Gettysburg College junior Doug Seale, the new Phi Delta Theta president, said he'd like to become official by the spring.

The transformation from the boarded-up building with hole-ridden walls is phenomenal, Seale said.

Repairs for the Phi Delta Theta chapter house totaled $1.2 million, Branchick said. And that's why the alumni group sold the house to the college, Seale said.

"It would have been up to the alumni to finance the restoration of the house," he said.

Now the fraternity members will pay college room and board for their housing.

Wagner called the sale "a good situation on both sides," Wagner said.

College ownership hasn't meant more discipline, he said, adding "It's never a big brother relationship."

Lafferty agreed.

"We obviously want them to maintain their individuality and they're going to do that," he said.