The Brown & White

Greek life will be expanding off the Hill to include two non-residential social fraternities, officials said, with hopes to appeal to students who may not be interested in Greek life on the Hill.

Tim Wilkinson, director of fraternity and sorority affairs, said the expansion is an opportunity to grow a new portion of the Greek community.

"Normally expansion opportunities bring groups of students together who aren't normally interested in the current Greek experience," Wilkinson said, "so it's the idea that a good Greek community tries to grow and thrive."

The expansion marks the first time that social fraternities will be opened off-campus at Lehigh, Wilkinson said, where all fraternities were also located on the Hill.

The application process began in May after sending out a call to the North American Interfraternity Conference that Lehigh was expanding, to which 12 Greek organizations responded. Those chapters were narrowed down to five finalists, all of which had previously operated at Lehigh and have active alumni, Wilkinson said.

By next Thursday, members from those five finalists will have finished giving presentations in public forums, the first of which began on Oct. 22.

Wilkinson said fraternity and sorority affairs expects to make decision on which fraternities will win the spots either in November or December, but did not know an exact date.

Non-residential fraternities, which operate under the same rules as other recognized fraternities, are relatively common across most Northeastern colleges and universities, but currently no recognized social fraternities at Lehigh are non-residential, Wilkinson said.

The major difference between a residential and a non-residential social fraternity, Wilkinson said, is that there is no central meeting place.

In response, the university will work with the organizations to find places on campus that they can meet.

"This is by no means about shifting groups off the Hill or away from fraternity houses," Wilkinson said. "This is just an opportunity to grow the Greek community, knowing that the Hill is not an experience everyone wants."

University recognition will have its benefits, such as being allowed to host events affiliated with the university and participating in university-sanctioned recruitment events, said Bobby Buckheit, '09, Interfraternity Council president.

"The key thing about the expansion is diversification and making the Greek system more inclusive and more open to those that maybe aren't looking for a residential experience," Buckheit said.

Some elements of non-residential Greek life, however, will be different, Buckheit said, such as sophomores still being required to live on campus. Benefits of living at residential areas, such as a house cook or cleaning services, will also not be provided to non-residential Greek organizations, but neither will the cost of living on-campus.

Although there will be no residential fees for these new houses, they will still be obligated to pay any IFC dues.

Despite the public nature of the meetings for the five finalists, the first round was done within the office of fraternity and sorority affairs.

Andrew Katz, '09, and president of Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, said his fraternity was unfairly denied a chance to compete for the spots.

The fraternity has been in operation at Lehigh since it was colonized without university recognition in 2001, despite the university asking them not to expand at the time, Katz said.

Katz said their fraternity has the highest grades of any fraternity at Lehigh and has been highly active in community service. He said their denial was to punish the colonizing brothers, who have since graduated.

"We came along later in the game, and we're paying the price for something others have done," Katz said.

Katz said he thought Lehigh's Greek expansion would be a good chance for his house to finally be recognized. He said the house submitted a written application from their nationals but were not given the opportunity to meet with the review board.

"It would have been nice for the school to give us the opportunity to add us to their Greek organizations," Katz said.

Wilkinson said Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity was denied because they did not want to reward an organization that operated without university approval.

"They decided to go a route, known as underground, when we have other alumni groups that have respected our requests," Wilkinson said, adding that the fraternity could apply again in the future if the university decides to expand Greek life further.

Wilkinson said the expansion in non-residential organizations is just a part of an effort to strengthen Greek life, a process that began in 2004.

Wilkinson said bringing in new people and chapters will increase the strength of the Greek community, as it has in the past three to four years.

Among other changes to Greek life, they have also expanded culturally-based fraternities and sororities.

"Whether you live on the Hill or you don't live on the Hill, the fraternity experience can be whatever you want it to be," Wilkinson said. "We want students to understand that there are other options."

Wilkinson also said part of the growing process is allowing a rotation of houses.

"As we've let chapters go, we've come to the realization that expanding other chapters doesn't tend to take away from other chapter's recruitment numbers."

Phi Delta Theta fraternity, Zeta Psi fraternity, Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity and Pi Lambda Phi all held public meetings in the afternoon over the past two weeks.

Delta Chi fraternity will host their public forum in room 308 of the University Center on Nov. 6 at 4 p.m.