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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 13, 2004)
Kappa Sigma Fraternity, located on Alder Street, sits shuttered and empty after the chapter’s national organization shut it down this past year. Danielle Hickey Photo editor Doors dose at University fraternity Kappa Sigma Due to large debt and small membership, Kappa Sigma terminated its University chapter this August BY KARA HANSEN NEWS REPORTER A University fraternity chapter shut its doors for good when it closed up for summer 2004. Members of the University’s Kappa Sigma fraternity returned this fall to boarded-up doors and a chapter that officially closed in late August, University junior and the chapter’s fi nal president Michael Sanberg said. Lacking $200,000 to pay off a loan used to remodel the fraternity house about seven years ago, the chapter underwent a critical trial before its national organization, which was followed by a restructur ing process that reduced the frater nity to fewer than 10 active mem bers, Sanberg said. Combined with the financial turmoil it already faced, these developments created a situation that was impossible for the fraternity to control, Sanberg said. “We just kind of got thrown into it,” he said. “It really came down to powers outside of us. It was really frustrating, but at the same time, everybody realizes there wasn’t really so much we could do unless some body hit the lottery and decided to pay off our debt.” About seven years ago, several Kappa Sigma alumni decided to remodel the house at 1090 Alder St. with an optimistic but somewhat un realistic financing plan, Sanberg said. “It was financed with the opti mism that we’d have at least 30 peo ple living in our house,” he said. “Ba sically, that never happened. The number has been gradually going down, so we couldn’t cover the oper ating costs to pay off our debt.” Greek Life Coordinator Shelley Sutherland said the number of members in most campus fraterni ties has remained constant, but she noted that recent recruitment at the University’s Kappa Sigma chapter had declined. Following a hearing in Vancouver, Wash., last spring in which the chap ter’s five executive members ex plained why they should remain affil iated with the fraternity, Portland attorney and Kappa Sigma Assistant District President Matt Fisher was ap pointed to review the house. Fisher said there wasn’t a sufficient number of people willing to commit themselves to the fraternity’s values and rules. Sanberg said the review of fraterni ty members narrowed membership from about 35 to seven people. “We would literally have had to rush like 30 people this fall term and then got them to all live in (the house),” he said. “And if we didn’t get that 30 people to live in, we would have been in breach of anoth er loan and would have been fore closed on anyway.” Fisher said after interviewing the fraternity’s members, he recom mended that the parent organization shut the chapter down. “Kappa Sigma has made it very clear over the course of many years that chapters are to comply with laws of the fraternity, laws at their universities and in their states,” Fisher said. “Without doing a full-scale investigation to determine whether there had been violations, we suspected there had been some. Rather than fight them to enforce the fraternity values, we decided to close the chapter down.” While Fisher said he hopes to spark another Kappa Sigma chapter at the University in the future, frater nity members said they were sad to see it close. “1 put a lot of time into my three years there and a lot of work,” said University senior Drew Wedeking, a former chapter president. “It’s really a disappointment to see it go.” “It’s tragic,” Sanberg said. “We cele brated our hundredth-year anniversary in April, and then the next month was basically the beginning of the end. ” karahansen@ daily emerald, com it \Uk** You* //i vk/ Hurt BUSH m CHENEY’04 8 u s h $ a c k % T$hi*t$.cofn *~rn «....* .•« ■r»-T*TTT*.Ti):l BUSHim CHENEY 04 & u * h $ u £ k * T $. h i *.t $ cor -4753 pclmJM]s] AT 365 E.l3tJi Street • 343-6842 • M-Sot 11-6 • Sun 12-4 FRERKM’ HUGE RRLE! pupcnase By bgg isi London $335 Barcelona $416 Dublin $336 Praque $416 Paris $358 Cairo $689 Rome $35B Johannesburg $899 MANY OTHER CITIES AVAILABLE... CALL OR STOP BY! Fares are subject to change & do not Include taxes. Eligibility restrictions apply. Depart; 10/12/04-8/18/05 (holiday blackoutis apply). Round&nip students 6 youth Rirfare Sale uiihh title Travel COTS II1RAVELCU1S See the world your way 1430 S.W. Park Ave. 503-274-2323 www.travelcuts.com The ethics of election coverage Is there such a thing as “unbiased coverage?” ...Should there be? Five experienced journalists will explore these and other timely questions: Friday, Oct 15, 2004 3:30-5 p.m. 182 Lillis, 955 East 13th Avenue free and open to the public Co-sponsored by the Oregon Daily Emerald and the School of Journalism and Communication. o r> \ UNIVERSITY OF ORECON
