After a six-year absence, Tufts' Delta Tau Delta (DTD) fraternity chapter will return to its house on 98 Professors Row this fall, while Tufts' Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) fraternity chapter, which has lived there since 2007, has moved back to the chapter's original house at 45 Sawyer Avenue.
This year will mark the first time the Beta Mu chapter of DTD has lived in the house since 2005, when the group lost university recognition and its charter after a near-fatal incident during a pledging event that involved alcohol.
DTD was officially allowed to return to campus during the 2008-2009 school year, though this is the first year that DTD has been allowed to occupy a house on campus due to university restrictions placed on re-chartered fraternities, according to DTD President Nathan Beaton, a senior.
AEPi's lease on the 98 Professors Row house ended in June, allowing DTD to move back into the house, which is owned by DTD's alumni foundation.
AEPi's return to 45 Sawyer will continue the fraternity's decades-long history on Sawyer. During the time that AEPi occupied the space on Professors Row, 45 Sawyer was offered as an on-campus housing option.
The 98 Professors Row house underwent extensive renovations this summer in an effort to restore the house to its original design, according to Beaton.
The restorations, financed by the Board of Directors of Delta Tau Delta Foundation of Tufts University, included new hardwood and carpeting, a redesigned basement, and an expanded foyer, according to Beaton. The house's bathrooms were also revamped.
"Pretty much everything has been replaced or gotten a facelift in some way," Beaton said.
Planning for the renovations involved examining archival photographs and drawings of the original building, Beaton said.
"The consensus was to restore the building architecturally and stylistically as close as we could to how it was originally when it was finished in 1936," Beaton added.
The fraternity also hired two full-time chefs to prepare food in the house, according to Beaton. This change will make DTD the second Greek organization on campus with its own food staff, after Delta Upsilon, according to Director of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs Su McGlone.
The house on 45 Sawyer has also undergone renovation this summer, according to AEPi President David Reiff, a junior.
AEPi's move from Professors Row to the smaller Sawyer location will mean that fewer brothers can live in the house. The fraternity prepared for the downsizing by accepting a smaller pledge class last spring, according to Reiff.
Despite initial hesitation about moving out of 98 Professors Row, Reiff insisted that the fraternity members are excited to return to their old house.
"We're very excited about it," he said. "It's where our chapter used to be and it's suited for the types of kids that we are."
"[What] anybody [in a Greek organization] will tell you, is that the house does not matter, the group of people matters … and it makes the sacrifice of leaving the house really not matter at all," he said.
McGlone offered her support to DTD during its return to its house.
"I plan on supporting them during their transition back onto campus in any way that they need it," she said. "Usually during a growth period the national organization and the campus would work together to provide support, and I plan on doing that."
Despite the 98 Professors Row house's central location on campus, Beaton insists that DTD will not be using the house as a recruiting point.
"I think it will probably have a bigger impact on our visibility on campus and how others perceive us, rather than how we perceive ourselves," he said.
"We're excited to be back on 98 Professors Row and to have that prominent place on campus," Beaton added.
