ASU Greek Life officials have said no to "Animal House" and hello to residence halls for fraternities.
The privately owned Adelphi II Commons on Sunset Drive, south of Apache Boulevard, houses five fraternities, said Greek Life Coordinator Mike Najor. Delta Chi, Kappa Sigma, FIJI, Kappa Alpha Order and Theta Xi will call the hall home.
Kappa Sigma was the only fraternity in the group to move from a house, said Tim Guelich, Interfraternity Council president and a communication junior. The other fraternities had been without houses for the past year, he said.
The complex is a sister property to Adelphi Commons, which houses sororities. Both complexes are alcohol-free and managed by Century Campus Housing, Najor said. The company has handled residence hall contracts from many other universities, and also builds regular housing properties.
"Ninety percent are underage," Najor said. "They already shouldn't be drinking."
Housing managed by a private company allows ASU to use private financing, Najor said. Otherwise, a facility managed by ASU would require University funds.
"It's state-of-the-art and at no cost to the school or the Greek community," Najor said.
Five clusters each house one fraternity, and a sixth cluster provides meeting and kitchen facilities reserved for the fraternities only, said Melodie Raab, managing director of Adelphi Commons.
Each cluster provides kitchen and meeting space, but fraternities have additional conference space all their own for special events and meetings.
Not all the space in the clusters has been filled, and "independent" students who don't belong to a fraternity live there as well, Raab said. In addition, 27 exchange students from Japan are living in the halls.
Tammy LePham, an undeclared sophomore, said she thinks the facility is nice looking, but could have been designed more carefully. For example, she said a wet spot appeared in the middle of her carpet after heavy rain fell during the first week, with no obvious signs of leakage from the ceiling.
The water in some ground floor rooms was due to window leakages that have already been fixed, Raab said.
"Obviously it's not very good," LePham said. "I would expect in new buildings everything would be perfect."
But business sophomore Chase Marsh, a member of FIJI and a resident assistant for the independents in his building, said he had no qualms about his living space.
"It's nice that we're back on campus," Marsh said. "The rooms are really nice."
Reach the reporter at nicole.saidi@asu.edu.
