Members of Sigma Chi are out of a house for at least six months, and the fraternity’s affiliation with the university is in severe jeopardy.
The fraternity, which has a house located at 729 E. Grand River Ave., had its rental license suspended for 180 days on June 21 by the East Lansing Housing Commission, following a string of repeated noise, trash and code violations.
No one is allowed to live in the house until Dec. 26, and the fraternity may not even survive at MSU.
Howard Asch, director of code enforcement and neighborhood conservation, said the house members repeatedly violated ordinances, even after city officials attempted working with the fraternity.
“Three or four different times we found dangerous things like the fire alarms not working,” Asch said. “We would go back in a week and find the same things destroyed. Out of concern for the safety of the occupants, the housing commission felt they should suspend the license.”
The fraternity was reprimanded in February by the housing commission for multiple citations for litter and trash, noise violations and an unlawful party.
Members were to get no more tickets and define ways to establish better behavior. But Asch said not long after, the men in the house began to receive citations for the same issues.
The fraternity’s alumni board then voted to shut down the house and sell it before the city closed it.
But Rick Dwyer, former president of the fraternity and a current member, said he’s frustrated with the whole ordeal because he felt Sigma Chi was unfairly treated by the board and the city.
“We were in a tough position because we couldn’t get away with anything because of our location,” the psychology senior said. “Things that would normally go unnoticed, we got noticed a lot more because we were right on Grand River.”
Dwyer also said many members worked with the city to correct the problems - it was a small portion of the fraternity that continued to cause problems.
“Myself and the other officers put a lot of effort into it,” he said, “and we have nothing to show for it.”
Sigma Chi is the only rental license in the city currently suspended and only the second one to be suspended in the city’s history.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon was the only other house ever to have its rental license suspended, a penalty members are currently appealing.
“The suspension is really a last resort,” Asch said. “It can be seen as a statement by the city that we aren’t going to tolerate slum property.”
James Denison, president of Gamma Psi Alumni of Sigma Chi, the corporation that owns the fraternity house, said the alumni board put about $150,000 into renovations in the house, such as new doors, drywall and realigning the floor plan.
He calls the investment “a waste of money.”
“The chapter was on the decline
