IU’s oldest fraternity now has the newest home

The newest addition to frat row rivals homes that would more likely be seen in MTV’s “Cribs” than in “Animal House.”\nBehind a Tudor façade and in front of a basketball court, Beta Theta Pi fraternity members will rest their heads in a $4.7-million house at 1100 North Jordan Ave., which is supposed to be finished Oct. 1. \nIt is entirely wireless, fully air-conditioned and is the only fraternity on campus with nearly all single rooms. The house, which sits on nearly $1.3 million worth of land, has three wings that include fully furnished bedrooms, a library, archives, a “great hall,” which will – upon completion – have an inside balcony from the top floor, and a dining hall that leads to the patio.\nWhile construction continued on the public areas of the house, some of the 57 live-in members opted to move into the completed residential wings of the house at the beginning of the semester.\n“It’s an incredible opportunity to live in a house that we worked years to see built,” said Greg Baumer, chapter president and senior.\nAfter losing its charter in 2001 for “vulgar” offenses, the IU Beta Theta Pi chapter recolonized in 2003. By 2005, it had enough members to recharter, and the quest for a new territory began, said Dr. Charles McCormick, the chapter’s counselor.\nBaumer said the “new faces” and “new people” in Beta would help to ensure that the fraternity would regain a better, more responsible reputation.\nThere is still a price for posh living.\nBeta Theta Pi live-in members pay about $8,300 for an academic year, which covers utilities, food and other amenities, Baumer said.\nBeta Theta Pi alum George Bledsoe said that because active undergraduates maintain “deep alumni relationships,” half of the funding was procured from donations. Baumer said that hopefully the house will be paid for entirely by alumni donation since a “critical aspect of fraternities (is) lifelong brotherhood.”\nIU Beta alumni not only paid for the house, but some even assisted in building it by participating in the House Corporation Board. Being in the house continued to strengthen alumni bonds with undergraduates.\nBledsoe also said the level of technology and the grandeur of the house architecturally were intended to raise the quality of future Greek housing on campus.\nBeta hasn’t only changed its look, but also has reshaped its outlook. Bledsoe said that in the new house, Beta Theta Pi is implementing a no-alcohol policy to “stop the ‘Animal House’ frat house living situation on this campus.”\n“We think that it’s important that young men – fraternity members – learn to live together, work together and create an atmosphere of high principles and integrity,” said James Newcomer, secretary-treasurer of the House Corporation Board. “And that can be done in the Beta house.”