The executive officers of various Greek houses have recently received, or will soon receive, the final results of audits conducted this summer by the Office of Residential Life.
While each house received a preliminary version of its audit for review last fall, the recently released audits are approximately 30 to 40 pages long, and explain at length the repairs that each house should make over the course of the next 15 years, Dean of Residential Life Martin Redman said.
Officers of each house will meet with Redman to discuss the audit, he said.
While Redman said that few thus far have been surprised by their audits, some Greek house officers are concerned about whether or not the audits are financially feasible.
Redman said that one should expect to spend between 1.5 to 3 percent of a building's gross value in order to maintain it properly.
For example, a Greek house with a gross value of $1 million ought to spend about $15,000 to $30,000 on maintenance each year; over 15 years, this hypothetical house would need to spend $225,000 to $425,000 on maintenance, even if one does not take inflation into account.
As many Greek houses have a gross value of $1 million or more, some officers were initially startled to see such six and seven-figure sums, Redman said.
After examining more closely the breakdown of the projected costs, Redman said that most found the recommended repairs feasible and affordable,.
He added that many were already aware of problems mentioned in the audits, and were grateful because the cost estimates will help them to allocate money for long-term repairs.
Redman acknowledged wide variations in the conditions of Greek houses, as the houses were built differently and at different times.
For example, while one house may have a new roof but an ailing furnace, another might have a deteriorating roof but a well-fuctioning furnace.
There are various building code issues not covered by the audit, Redman said, which the Greek Life Steering Committee will examine in the future.
For example, he said that Greek houses will eventually need to look at the cost of renovating their buildings so that they are fully compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Nonetheless, the presidents of some houses indicated concerns about the financial feasability of repairs recommended in the audit.
Michael Salzman, president of Kappa Kappa Kappa Fraternity, was concerned about the $1 million price tag of repairs recommended in Tri-Kap's audit.
For example, he did not see a way for Tri-Kap to install a four-story elevator, as was recommended in the audit.
However, he said that, as the College plans to review the audits, it is too early to predict how much Tri-Kap and fraternities like it will eventually spend on repairs recommended by the auditors.
Nina Basu, president of Alpha Theta co-educational fraternity, said that, while she wished that the exact details of the audit of Alpha Theta remain private, she did not find that Alpha Theta had the "same issues with repair" that other houses do.
Shihwan Chung '02, president of the Coed, Fraternity, and Sorority Council, said that while many Greek house leaders were initially taken aback by the high costs of repairs estimated in the audit, most houses can be repaired over a long period of time.
For example, he said that while houses ought to examine what they should do to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, it is not likely that most houses will comply in the near future, since other Dartmouth buildings do not.
He also said that the auditors may have deliberately made some of their estimates slightly high, figuring that it would be better to overestimate the cost of a repair than to underestimate one.
Thus, many repairs will probably not cost as much as the estimates in the audit suggest, he said.
