– Editor’s Note: This is the first in a three part series on Greek organizations and the impact of University property ownership.

The Chi Psi fraternity received good news this week when its three-year suspension was lifted and the fraternity was allowed to return to campus.

There is only one problem — members have no place to call home.

“The house has been vacant for three years, and we don’t know what it would take to renovate it,” said Phillip Cofer, housing adviser for the University chapter of Chi Psi.

Members of Chi Psi, which was suspended for fire safety and alcohol violations, are willing to apply for a loan and go ahead with the renovations, Cofer said. However, they are unable to get a loan without a lease from the University.

Since Michael Adams was appointed president in 1997, the University has not leased land to any fraternity or sorority organizations, said manager of family housing Ken Goyen, who also manages the fraternity and sorority houses on University land.

Vice President for Student Affairs Richard Mullendore said he was unsure when the University stopped granting leases.

The problem, Cofer said, is that banks will not grant loans to Greek organizations because they don’t own their land, and the University will not conduct the needed repairs.

“Here sits a house that we built and apparently have no rights over,” he said. “We’d like to move back into our house, but what will it take to fix it, and who’s going to pay?”

Of the 11 houses on University property — located on Lumpkin Street and River Road — only two organizations retain leases on the land that their houses are built on: Sigma Chi and Sigma Nu fraternities.

Due to insufficient funds, many of the occupied houses are falling apart, Cofer said.

“There’s no way you could keep an apartment or housing complex open in the conditions that some of these houses are in,” he said. “Some are just deplorable.”

Goyen agreed that the houses are in bad condition.

“Mostly it’s the effects of 40 and 50 years of age and probably less than adequate care,” he said.

The houses have problems such as shoddy infrastructure, poor electricity and piping and roofing that is falling apart.

He said one of the downsides to living on the University land is that the organizations have no control over it.

“The chapters are really left to raise money on their own,” Goyen said. “Sometimes this can be quite a difficult task.”

Cofer said since the University will not grant fraternities and sororities leases and owns their land, the University should be responsible for needed repairs.

This is a problem that almost all Greek organizations located on University land are facing, and have been facing for many years, he said.

“It’s a huge issue that’s been kind of boiling under the radar screen of the University for years,” Cofer said.