SAE works toward charter, new house

Sigma Alpha Epsilon wanted to rebuild a house and a chapter on campus. But they had to get rid of their old house first, said SAE President Ronak Desai.\nDemolition on the old Sigma Alpha Epsilon house began on Sept. 10 and is scheduled to finish Friday. Desai said the “eyesore” will be replaced by “a modern house with all the modern amenities,” including Wi-fi internet access and more individual rooms.\n“It’s sort of symbolic because one of the symbols of our fraternity is a Phoenix rising from the ashes,” said Zach Garrison, the chapter’s alumni chairman.\nAs for architecture, he said many alumni want to see a white house with a red roof that resembles Jordan Crest Gables, the SAE house that existed where the Read parking lot now sits.\nSAE alumni Jack Steffee said he thinks demolishing the “old ramshackled place” and building a new house for the chapter members is “a great idea.”\nSteffee said alumni want to afford the same opportunity to live together in a fraternity that they had when they came to IU. \nHe said a “heck of a large group of alumni” will be there to help every step of the way.\nThe more than 2,000 alumni will help through fundraising, designing and rebuilding the house, Garrison said.\nDesai said the project, from the start of fundraising to move-in day, will take up to three years. He said ideally construction would start in a year and the housing commission projected construction would last for about a year and a half.\nThe time devoted to fundraising before construction plays a big factor in building a fraternity house as they can cost anywhere from $3 to $5 million.\n“It’s no meager expense,” Desai said.\nThe IU Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter lost its charter in 2002 for alcohol-related violations, according to an April 4, 2007 IDS article.\nAfter recolonizing in March 2006, the chapter is now taking steps to secure a charter by this March, Garrison said.\nIU’s SAE chapter was founded in 1907, and it’s appropriate that the centennial brings a new approach to the fraternity’s original values, Desai said.\nDesai said the fraternity is trying to recruit “true gentlemen” to help boost the membership numbers and involvement on-campus and to help convince the Interfraternity Council that Sigma Alpha Epsilon is ready to recharter.\nAlthough recruitment is more difficult without an on-campus house, Desai said it has forged stronger bonds between brothers because freshmen are not just joining “because of \nthe house.”\nAlthough Sigma Alpha Epsilon owns the property, the members are not allowed to live on it until the fraternity regains its charter, IFC President Mike Piermont said.\nPiermont said planning to build a new house is a “big step in increasing membership” and it would not be difficult for SAE to “get all their ducks in a row” to be voted in as an on-campus chapter at the rate the fraternity is moving.\nGarrison said SAE has already become an official student organization and is “becoming a part of the University and building relationships with people on campus” to re-establish itself as “staple” at IU, as well as attending sending members to IFC events \nand meetings.\n“I don’t think there’s going to be an empty house,” Piermont said. “It should speed up the process (of rechartering).”\nSteffee said he hopes to see a rediscovery of the true meaning of fraternity—being active in intramurals and having a good GPA, not necessarily being the “jive” house \non campus.\n“I know the world has changed,” Steffee said. “(But) I get awfully irritated by the “Animal House” stuff I see on television. Fraternity meant a whole lot, and this one meant a whole lot to me.”