Chi Omega returns to chapter house ahead of schedule

Chi Omega is returning home.

Repairs to the electrical wiring of its chapter house, located at 3926 Spruce St., were completed ahead of schedule, and the chapter will move back in on March 4 and 5, Executive Director for Vice Provost of University Life Facilities Thomas Hauber said in an email.

At the beginning of the semester, the students living in the Chi O house were temporarily forced to relocate to the former chapter house of Alpha Epsilon Pi at 4035 Walnut St. VPUL Facilities discovered some issues with the old wiring system in the house and asked the chapter to move out while they made renovations.

Wharton junior and Chi O President Brigitte Ehman said because the move-in date falls over spring break, the house residents will not be responsible for physically moving their belongings back to the chapter house. Instead, everyone will pack up her own room before leaving campus, and a team of movers will deliver everything to the house on the Monday and Tuesday of break.

“They’ve supplied us with packing materials and boxes and tape, so really all we have to do is pack up our stuff,” said Wharton sophomore Maria Guadagnino, who lives in the Chi O house.

The movers will also handle packing up everything in common areas like the kitchen and living room, Ehman added.

According to Hauber, new electrical outlets were installed throughout the house. Ehman said that while the wiring used to be in the floors of the house, it is now around the perimeter of the ceilings.

New light switches and motion-sensor hallway lights were also installed in the house, Ehman said.

Hauber added that all of the rooms were repainted, but the scheduled carpet installation was put on hold until summer break due to delivery problems.

“Overall it’s a pretty big facelift, but it’s primarily on the inside,” Ehman said.

Ehman was notified a few weeks ago that the repairs were complete, and she said she met with advisors from VPUL and the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life to discuss move-in dates and do a final walk-through of the house.

“We always knew we were going to move back in,” she said.

Ehman also added that there are future plans to make similar necessary renovations to other Greek houses and the Chi O house was one of the first projects.

Guadagnino said that living in the AEPi house was definitely a change from their chapter house, but not necessarily a bad one. “One benefit from it was that it was a lot bigger, so a lot of us got to have our own room, and we didn’t before in the old house,” she said.

However, Wharton sophomore Ally Del Canal, one of the house managers, said that AEPi is more spread out than their chapter house, so the sisters spent less time in the same common spaces. “We missed having a very centralized area in the house where everybody got to see each other,” she said.

“We haven’t really had any major problems in the AEPi house, but I think we miss the general comfort and convenience of the old house, “Guadagnino added.

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