Almost two-and-a-half years after being mandated by the Board of Trustees, individual reports detailing required physical updates and improvements to coed, fraternity and sorority physical plants will finally be released later this term.
Leaders of Greek organizations that occupy privately-owned houses said they expect the renovations to be costly, requiring extensive support from organization alumni and national corporations.
Since the April 2000 release of the Student Life Initiative report, a private audit company has been working its way through all CFS physical plants in order to determine what short and long-term projects each organization will need to plan for.
The College's goal is to create parity between College-owned housing and on-campus corporation-owned housing, said Cassie Barnhardt, the assistant dean of residential life for Greek affairs. She added that improvements may be as minor as a new light on a back door, or as large as installing a new roof or exhaust system.
Overall, the improvements will fall under the areas of safety, handicap compliance and aesthetic issues, Barnhardt said.
While Dartmouth will foot the bill for improvements to College-owned houses -- those occupied by Delta Delta Delta, Sigma Delta, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Epsilon Kappa Theta and Kappa Delta Epsilon sororities and Alpha Chi Alpha and Chi Heorot fraternities -- other organizations will be independently responsible for financing the renovations, Barnhardt said.
There have been no official estimates released, but some fraternity presidents suspect that the costs will run into the hundreds of thousands.
Patrick Granfield '03, president of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, estimated that long and short-term improvements on his house might run as high as half a million dollars.
He cited alumni-run capital campaigns and no-interest loans from nationally-run Sigma Phi Epsilon, Inc. as his house's main resources when attempting to fund the renovations. He added that it will be harder for local groups that don't have the same kind of national resources.
James Lau '03, president of Kappa Kappa Kappa fraternity, a local house, acknowledged that the bills may be quite large but was "confident that all costs would eventually be met." He also said that several of the "short-term" improvements have already been completed.
Tri-Kap alumni run year-round fundraisers and are aware that the house will likely soon need extra money, Lau said, but explained that the actual costs would probably be much less than the reports will indicate since there are usually cheaper ways to fix any problems.
Michael Mothner '03, president of Psi Upsilon fraternity, said that his house "hasn't dealt with it yet" and that members are waiting for the reports to be released. However, he agreed that once informed the house will definitely go to their national corporation for help.
While each Greek organi-zation's financial situation is different, many national houses have more resources to draw upon, with larger alumni pools and the possible option of a corporate loan.
CFS organizations are prohibited from running their own fundraisers, so the work of meeting the costs is "really in the alumni's hands," Barnhardt said.
The Office of Residential Life and the College are willing to collaborate with the houses in order to make the changes happen, Barnhardt said, and will meet individually with each house to discuss the most realistic and cheapest course of action.
The College might extend loans to certain houses, "but only after external options have been exhausted, and only if analysis supports a high likelihood of repayment," according to the original Initiative recommendations.
