Housing and Membership Review Update from ASU

First lets address the status of the Housing update.

The tremendous leadership of Bob Hobbs and Bruce Sedlack as members
of the Blue Ribbon panel of ASU Greeks charged with meeting weekly
with ASU staff as accomplished some unbelievable goals. Bob’s
influence and Bruce’s drive were instrumental in the success that
appears to be around the corner.

ASU has know offered a proposal that will see us safely ensconced at
606 Alpha Drive for at least the next twenty years safe from eminent
domain proceedings by the University. There are some conditions of
course such as the external maintenance of he property having to be
up to the CC&R codes as will be enacted by the Alpha Drive
Association and that we each fund a maintenance account to ensure
that this work can be accomplished should a house default.

The University has torn down the old Theta Delt house that was
between our House and the PIKE house. Delta Sig will probably be
moving down the street to this lot and SAE may be moving down to the
Green land behind our house too. Their moving will allow ASU to
acquire their land along with the Solar House and the tennis courts
at that end of Alpha Drive will at least allow the University to
utilize some of the land on our parcel.

The University has also signaled that they will work with us to
establish some more equitable judicial processes re: fraternities at ASU.

Just a four short months ago this outcome would have been thought
impossible. The committee and the resources it brought to bear have
worked a miracle. Of course outright financial threats from some
“heavy hitter” alums from the various Alpha Drive houses backed up by
word from the ASU Foundation that 65% of its donations come from the
Greek community helped to put things in perspective too.

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Membership Review Update

As mentioned previously the Active Chapter crossed some lines at the
end of this last semester and the beginning of this one that coupled
with some other outstanding issues resulted in us being directed by
Headquarters in conducting a Membership review of the Active
Chapter. As of today the House population of 129 (Actives and
Pledges) has been trimmed to 23 invited to return to Active/Pledge
Status (21 Actives and 2 Pledges), 52 having filed appeals (43
Actives and 9 Pledges – I believe most of the appeals heard so far
have been approved with conditions and I believe those that have been
denied have been invited to address some issues that they may have
and file a second appeal), 17 Actives that choose not to appeal after
their interview and the application of the requirements as directed
by Headquarters (cumulative GPA has to be above the All Men’s Average
and they cannot owe any money to the Chapter) and another 37 Actives
that chose to not participate in the process. If all the Actives and
Pledges that went through the Interview and the Appeals process for
those that need to meet some additional requirements are granted we
should start the Fall 2003 semester with 64 Actives and 11 Pledges.
Obviously down significantly from the current 129 that we show on the
books but this heavy pruning the House should be prepared to move
forward and make us and themselves proud of their accomplishments

Last week we were also forced to not only remove the Consul from
office (under direction by the Grand Consul) but to take the very
unusual step of evicting him from the property too. This step was
forced by (among other things) his inattention to addressing his need
to meet with ASU re: the current discipline issues as well as his
apparent fomenting of “mutiny” against the process that we were
tasked with carrying out, sadly he still has the Consul Badge of the
House and has yet to return it despite repeated requests that he do
so. This is the Original Badge that was given to the House when it
was chartered and which has been worn by ALL the Epsilon Upsilon Consuls.

The new Consul for next year (elected in the normal course of
elections) is Matt Miksin. Matt was an Architecture Student who has
now switched to Civil and Urban Planning. He was Annotator this past
semester and carries an outstanding 3.5+ cumulative GPA! Matt has
been working with Austen Jensen (the Magister for next semester) to
design an outstanding Pledge Program that the Chapter can be proud of
and they have been assisted by Mike Dunn (Past Grand Queaster) and
George Gronbacher, the new Chapter Advisor along with Bill Scott the
outgoing Praetor. Austen should be returning to school in the fall
completely charged up and ready to lead a really good pledge program
as not only will he be attending the Balfour Leadership Workshop that
the Executive Chapter officers are supposed to attend but he also
applied for and was also selected to attend the new Horizons
Leadership Program (http://www.sigmachi.org/horizons/) that
Headquarters recently began.

Matt and Austen will be presenting to Dean Sullivan (Judicial Dean)
their complete program plan at the end of the month. Hopefully their
hard work will see the Chapter back into the good graces of our host
University and the General Fraternity.