Ten years is a long time to wait in line, but it’s almost Kappa Sigma’s turn to drink the Kool-Aid. Even before the final bricks and mortar are laid for the new Tau Kappa Epsilon (TEKE) house and the renovation of the Delta Tau Delta (Delt) house plans have been drawn up for the final college owned fraternity house building project. The new Kappa Sigma house will mark the end of a ten year capital campaign.
Mr. Cal Black ‘66, Director of Development for Alumni Affairs has been largely responsible for overseeing this project since Beta house was built in the fall of 2000. Whereas many campuses have rejected the fraternity philosophy, Wabash enigmatically embraced to build better living units for its fraternity students.
“Because fraternities have been such an important part of the Wabash tradition, we want to sustain that and maintain it,” Mr. Black said.
Wabash’s unique fraternity-college partnership emerged from the 1998 capital campaign. In this partnership, both the undergraduate and alumni brothers in each fraternity had to come up with a plan to not only raise part of the funds to construct the building, but also set goals of improvement for the fraternity in other aspects of campus involvement. In what was called a Program Document fraternities had to outline goals for the undergraduate brothers, including goals like raising the fraternity’s overall GPA, involving brothers in extra curricular activities and community service in the surrounding area.
Both the Delts and the TEKEs are experiencing the inconveniences of construction that seem to be self evident in any Wabash housing construction project in very different ways.
The TEKEs have been residing in the old FIJI house (what Mr. Black characterizes as the “swing space”) since the spring of last year. “The thought is that the TKE house will be done next April, and they can occupy it the following fall,” Mr. Black said. The TEKE house will have living space for 40 brothers – a drastic net increase from the current number which, according to Mr. Black, has hovered between 26 and 28 for the last few years.
With only temporary housing and a desire to significantly increase membership, one could easily see hefty challenges in garnering a large rush class of quality men. TEKE President Josh Eal’08 sees their current living situation as an advantage “Our old location was much smaller than what we have now so it has helped us to grow our numbers before we move,” Mr. Eal said. “On top of that the promise of a new house right around the corner is a great rush tool.”
The Delt renovation will be completed over two summers. The first part of the renovation, began earlier this summer, included a renovated kitchen, construction on the lower level and adding a terrace to the back. Part two will include reconfiguring the study rooms next summer.
After the TEKE and Delt construction, a new Kappa Sigma house will be constructed on their existing house and the current brothers will have to move into the ‘swing space’. “The Kappa Sig Alumni will see this information for the first time this week,” Mr. Black said.
Mr. Black recognized the partnership between the college and the fraternities as unconventional, and, because of that, understands the incredible microscope the college is currently under. We’ve got a lot of eyes on us,” Mr. Black said, “looking at us to see if it’s going to succeed. So far, it really has.”