Dartmouth has set aside $8 million for the renovation of Greek houses, but Greek responses to the College Loan Program have been mixed.
About $500,000 per house will be available in loans, to be paid back over the next ten years. The money will be available for improving the houses' physical plants.
These loans will be available for a low-interest repayment by the organizations.
The impetus for the loans comes from a facilities audit the College commissioned from an outside firm. After a year of research, the audit determined that the houses needed $850,000 worth of repair over the next ten years.
"Four years ago, one of the concerns of the Board of Trustees and the Student Life Initiative was that the fraternities and sororities, in general, weren't in the greatest shape -- they wanted improvement," Dean of Residential Life, Marty Redman said.
But the audit's demands proved a serious financial burden for many Greek houses, Redman said.
"They aren't the kind of organizations that can just go to the bank and borrow money," he said. "If they could get approved, it would be very expensive. Most of them don't have a credit rating."
The loan program was created to give houses an opportunity to "accomplish what they want to do," Redman said.
The loans come with no policy changes attached, just a request that houses bring their facilities up to College standards.
Some Greek organizations said that they feel pressure to update their facilities, despite being privately owned.
"The College needs to understand that certain houses are not going to be able to support the level of renovations that the College is requiring. For certain houses, I think it is an unrealistic request," Sigma Phi Epsilon President Evan Lapinsky '04 said.
The College has put pressure on Gamma Delta Chi fraternity to make their residence accord more closely with the Americans with Disabilities Act standards, the fraternity said.
"We're expected to remodel our houses so that a handicapped student would have access to a room, bathroom, kitchen and whatever social options we provide," Gamma Delt president John Turner '04 said.
"There are certain things the College is forcing us to do that we wouldn't do otherwise, but our house hasn't been majorly renovated since the early 1960s," Lapinsky said.
He also noted that Sig Ep's large membership will make it easier for them to renovate. But they do plan on taking a loan, either from the College or from their national organization.
Still, the College can not legally enforce any repairs because many houses are more than 50 years old and have no "specified upgrades," Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity president Thomas Hutchinson '04 said.
"The town of Hanover has, in fact, told us that we do not have to do these things," he said. "It remains to be seen whether or not the College will mandate that we do all of them."
Hutchinson added, however, that not all of the upgrades run counter to the aims of the Greek houses. Many of the revisions requested by the College were in line with fraternity goals.
SAE would not need to take a loan from the College, thus begging the question of whether or not the College will make the fraternity use their own money.
"As of now, SAE is in good financial shape because of our alums' generosity and good financial management on the part of the trustees," Hutchison said. "We are also not sure how much of the Fuller Audit we will have to implement, so we don't plan on taking any loans."
