Editor's note: The membership and number of fraternity houses have steadily decreased at Ball State in the last five years. This Daily News series focuses on the three main reasons for the decline: academics, finances and enrollment.
After losing three out of five fraternities with mortgage loans guaranteed by Ball State, the university has become concerned with how fraternities are succeeding financially, Lynda Wiley, director of student organizations and activities, said.
The university has implemented the recommendations made by the Fraternity Advisory Committee, a temporary task group formed in Sept. 2003 by Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management Doug McConkey.
"Obviously the Interfraternity Council doesn't want to lose any organizations and neither does the university," Wiley said. "We don't like it."
Ball State has lost Alpha Tau Omega, Delta Chi and Beta Theta Pi because they defaulted on their house loans.
The Office of Student Organizations and Activities is working with the two remaining fraternities with Ball State guaranteed loans, Sigma Phi Epsilon and Phi Delta Theta, so they don't meet the same fate as the three disbanded chapters, Wiley said.
HOUSE CLEANING
Fraternity houses are not owned by the Ball State chapter, they are owned by the alumni in the group's national chapter, Bowen Moreland, Interfraternity Council president, said.
The fraternity's housing payments are made to the alumni and their national chapter's housing incorporation distributes the money accordingly, he said.
If one brother doesn't pay their housing fees on time, it sets the chapter behind on its payments and if there aren't enough people living in the house then the payments become a bigger burden, Matt Heffernan, president of Sigma Alpha Epsilon said.
If payments aren't getting in, the brother could be turned over to a collection agency or other arrangements can be made to make the payments more feasible, he said.
Beta Theta Pi underwent a process called "house cleaning," where the national chapter examines the brothers living in the house and makes the ones who aren't meeting their standards leave. When members are forced out then house isn't full and the financial burden grows, he said.
"When you have house cleaning, you can't really afford to pay your bills anymore," Heffernan said.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The committee recommended to allow new fraternity members with a year left in the residence halls on the premium plan to cancel their contracts so they can live in the fraternity house. Student Organizations and Activities plan to use this recommendation next year so the fraternities will have more opportunities to fill their houses.
The idea sounds good on paper, Heffernan said, but there is a catch in the wording.
One of the requirements that must be met for the exemption to apply is that the chapter has to have "signed housing contracts from all eligible members." This means that every member who can live in the house must be living in the house so new members can get out of their premium contracts to live there, Heffernan said.
If all eligible members are living in the house, however, there would not be room for the new members to come in, Heffernan said. The exemption would rarely apply to any fraternities, but it could serve as motivation for brothers to meet all their requirements. If a house cleaning takes place because the fraternity needs to make room for new members, older brothers could potentially be asked to leave, he said.
Student Organizations and Activities is currently using the committee's recommendation for live-in fraternity advisors, Wiley said.
FINANCIAL AID
Sigma Phi Epsilon and Phi Delta Theta have live-in advisers to provide them financial guidance, Wiley said. The advisers are graduate students who receive paid tuition and a paid stipend which is covered by university tuition, just as any other graduate assistant at the university would, she said.
The fraternities don't mind the extra company, though, Wiley said. In fact, the chapters want someone there to help, she said.
The most common question the office of Student Organizations and Activities asks itself is what type of fund raising fraternities can do because many fraternities do not use that resource, she said.
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