Fraternity houses scheduled to be torn down, Rush Week goes on
Four out of the seven fraternities at Utah State University entered formal Rush Week Monday — for lack of a better word — homeless.
Two of the fraternities — Psi Sigma Phi and Alpha Sigma Phi — have never had an official home. The other pair — Alpha Tau Omega and Sigma Phi Epsilon — lived side by side along Lars Hansen Drive until the end of spring 2016 when both organizations made an exodus from their homes after learning the houses would be torn down and the area developed into a housing complex sometime in January 2017.
The beginning of formal Rush Week is one of the first official organizational functions of the year for most Greek organizations. Traditionally, Rush Week begins with house tours. Monday’s house tours, the majority of which took place in the Colony Rooms of the Taggart Student Center, marked a change in the dynamic and image of Greek life at USU, especially with recruiting.
“For us it has actually been a cool thing,” said Sean Farley, Alpha Tau Omega recruitment chairman. “The chapter has come together and realized we don’t have a house and we need to step it up if we are going to reach our goals for recruitment. For us it’s an incentive to all push as a chapter to recruit.”
Sigma Phi Epsilon president Ian Nemelka says not having a house is actually going to help his fraternity recruit individuals that want to join a fraternity for what he calls “the right things.”
“If a person joins a fraternity, and the house is the determining factor, then honestly that isn’t an individual that we would want to recruit. We want individuals that are interested in our principles, the things that we stand for and the things that we fight for — not just the fact that we have a house,” Nemelka said. “I think that there is definitely an appeal, not only for the individuals that are looking to join a fraternity, but for us, it helps us narrow down those individuals that are looking for the right things.”
Recruiting new members without an official house is nothing new to USU Greek life. Both Psi Sigma Phi, and most recently Alpha Sigma Phi, have been able to maintain viable membership numbers without the luxury of a house.
Specifically Alpha Sigma Phi, with the help of the fraternity’s coordinator of expansion and growth Matthew Weido, was able to start from zero and recruit 34 members in the matter of a semester.
Ryker Moore, the president of Alpha Sigma Phi, says his organization was able to recruit as quickly and effectively as it did because potential new members saw immediate opportunities to lead and create their own culture within the fraternity.
“A lot of our guys have leadership qualities, and I think having the opportunity to come in and instantly step into those leadership roles stood out to a lot of guys,” Moore said.
The effect of not having an official house extends far past recruitment, however, and may very well change the way fraternities at USU operate, Moore notes.
“I think not having a house will be good, in that it allows fraternities to focus on their fraternity, what makes them stand out and what their brotherhood is about,” Moore said. “Houses make everything easier. But I think having to go back to the basics—what builds our brotherhood, why are we coming together and how do we do it—will be good.”
For the foreseeable future, fraternity life at USU will happen mostly outside of fraternity houses, which, Nemelka says, may spell change for the better.
“I think that this couldn’t have come at a better time because when we talk about time and fraternities and whether they are outdated, a lot of people would think so; and a lot of the stereotypes that go along with fraternities occur at the ‘old frat houses,’” Nemelka said.
He says the change may keep fraternities alive at USU in a time when many critics say they are irrelevant.
“You either have to adapt or die, and I think at this point—I’m not saying that there aren’t advantages to having a house—but I think that this transition of getting out of houses, as well as changing the standards of a fraternity, fits very well into the university’s timeline.”