Tufts' Delta Tau Delta (DTD) fraternity chapter will move back into 98 Professors Row next fall, reoccupying the house that the Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) fraternity has filled for the past five years.
DTD's housing corporation, which is composed of DTD alumni and retains private ownership of the house, leased the property to AEPi in 2005 when Tufts suspended DTD from campus for four years.
The chapter lost university recognition in Spring 2005 after a student at a pledging event stopped breathing and was taken to the hospital. In an investigation that followed, DTD admitted to violations, including hazing and providing alcohol to minors.
The fraternity is working to reestablish bonds with alumni in preparation for the move and intends to pour nearly $200,000 of funding into restoring their old house, according to DTD President Andrew Brinson.
The funds are available through DTD's housing corporation, which is composed of fraternity alumni and has been raising money and planning for the repairs.
"We're doing a lot of alumni−relation work. We're trying to keep the alumni engaged and show them we're a chapter," Brinson, a junior, said. "Their sincere hope is to restore it to the glory that it was when they lived in there."
The chapter began recruiting again in early 2009 but needed to maintain a membership for several years before it could move to an on−campus house, according to Brinson.
He blamed the fraternity's previous violations on poor leadership.
"The group of men that were running the chapter here had kind of lost some of the ideals of the fraternity," he said.
Director of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs Tanya McGinn Paolo said that fraternities with serious violations are typically removed from campus for at least four years to allow all the brothers involved to graduate.
"You don't suspend an organization for just a run−of−the−mill violation," Paolo said. "That's part of what the suspension is meant to do, is to allow some time away."
Ideally, all members involved in the major violation would leave the school during the course of the suspension, letting the chapter start afresh with a new group of members, she said.
Brinson said AEPi's lease on the house will end on June 1, 2011, allowing DTD to move back in the fall.
AEPi President Abe Stein, a junior, said his fraternity is planning for the transition but declined to comment further.
Brinson hopes that AEPi has taken care of the house in DTD's absence.
"We're hoping that they maintain the house nice enough so that when we get it, we don't have to do a lot of cleanup," he said.
Interfraternity Council President Alex Stein, a junior, said that the two fraternities were going to cooperate during the transition.
"I think that there's a lot of cooperation, especially between the presidents, but also between the general membership of AEPi and DTD," Stein, who was vice president of DTD in 2009, said.
"I think that both chapters have been working well together and haven't expressed any noticeable animosity toward each other recently," he said.
Brinson said he is looking forward to reestablishing DTD's campus presence, which will help with recruitment. "It is difficult being a fraternity without a house," Brinson said.
He hopes that DTD's new chapter will have better alumni relations than in years past.
"A lot of the alumni felt disenfranchised with the last chapter that lived in the house," he said. "Apparently their relationship with the alums wasn't very good."
DTD has been planning alumni outreach events, including a homecoming event, Brinson said.
"The only thing the brothers really can do is show the alumni that we're capable and we're confident," he said. "We'll maintain the house and keep the long tradition that they all established."
Paolo called the chapter's outreach activities "positive steps."
Brinson said the role of alumni in fundraising is crucial. "It's well beyond the scope of any chapter," he said. "The fundraising isn't coming from us."
The importance of alumni relations transcends financial matters, he said.
"I think alumni play a role way beyond making a donation to fund that house," she said. "I think advisors are so important in the Greek community, so it's nice to have alumni who want to come back and support the chapter."
