After 50 years housing the brothers of Sigma Chi, the fraternity house on the corner of Grand River Avenue and Collingwood Drive is getting a makeover.
“Over the course of these past two years we’ve been completing renovations,” finance junior Keenan Hammer said. “The main purpose was to set it up so that our house would be able to last for another 50 years ... (and) give a comfortable place to live so that guys would want to live in the house.”
The front of the house also got a “facelift” as described by Hammer, president of the MSU chapter of Sigma Chi. In addition to the tear down and reconstruction of the porch, the house will also sport a new fence as part of the renovations.
Hammer has been a member of Sigma Chi since his freshman year.
Hammer provided an outline of some of the improvements including renovated bathrooms with new toilets, showers and sinks, a new living layout including common areas for members to hang out and socialize and new bedrooms around these common areas for brothers that decide to live in the house.
“Last summer we did the basement and the third floor and then we did upstairs this year,” Rich Nemesi, a Sigma Chi alumnus from 1981, said. “We also brought air conditioning, heating, wifi, all of that into the house.”
Nemesi explained that most of the work was done in the summer in order to minimize the impacts it had on students living in the house during the year.
The members were able to move in as normal in the fall. There are currently 36 people living in the house. Hammer said they are certified for up to 40.
While the renovated house will serve as a selling point for potential new members, Hammer said that hopes for the new house go beyond recruitment.
“The house reflects a lot on our chapter and the changes that we have made in the past two years,” Hammer said. “It shows and demonstrates how we have respect for ourselves, respect for our image and we’re trying to become a good neighbor and a good member of (the) East Lansing (community).”
The remodel wouldn’t have been possible without the involvement of Sigma Chi’s alumni, particularly Nemesi, who took charge of the project and coordinated fundraising efforts. He contacted alumni from as early as the 1950s to make donations to the project. Nemesi said over 250 alumni raised $1.1 million to fund the remodel.
“The house was built in 1964 and our whole campaign was the Sigma Chi 100 Year Campaign- Honoring our Past. Securing Our Legacy,” Nemesi explained. “We want to create a 100 year program and so ... our goal was to create a competitive living space in the East Lansing market where kids would want to live.”
